Healthcare Startup Debuts Prescription Platform

A healthcare startup looks to digitize the management of medical prescriptions through an e-prescription system that allows patients to directly link with pharmacies. MedRafa entices pharmacies with a free-to-use inventory management system while offering patients an easy-to-use tool to check on available medicines. The startup is a recent graduate of WeVenture Hub, a venture capital-backed incubator formed last year.

Ben Tesfaye, Co-founder and CEO of Medrafa, expects the free inventory management system to serve as a stepping stone towards the digitization of retail pharmaceutical sales. He says the ability to easily track expiration dates with alerts, purchase order management, and sales history tracking will significantly enhance the efficiency of pharmacies.

“Every dataset is seamlessly interoperable,” Ben told Shega.

The platform is built on Fast Health Care Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards, an international framework for exchanging health care information electronically to ensure interoperability with Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). Precise prescription management, automated links to pharmacies, and easy accessibility for patients are being targeted by the founders.

Ben says pharmacies waste significant time and resources due to the manual registration of data. By showcasing the benefits of the inventory management portal, he hopes to bring about a seamless transition into their automated prescription system.

Challenges in easily accessing medicine are all too common in Ethiopia due to a combination of several reasons. In addition to limited imports of pharmaceuticals and barely emergent domestic manufacturing, pharmacies often ran out of stock. Research from Gonder University points to affordability and availability as the primary causes of shortage of essential medicines.

Noel Daniel, Co-founder of WeVenture, lauds MedRafa as the flagship startup in their incubator. He says Ethiopia’s health sector presents a vast, untapped market that can significantly benefit from digital technologies.

“Wrong prescriptions can have fatal consequences,” Noel told Shega.

While several technology startups have spawned in recent years looking to introduce digital tools into Ethiopia’s health care system, success has been partly hindered by the inability to integrate with major health care providers.

A 2023 report titled Addis Ababa Startup Ecosystem Report identified over 40 health tech startups in the capital city alone. The report attributes this surge to a combination of factors: rising health awareness among Ethiopians, increasing demand for convenient healthcare services, and the support provided by ecosystem builders like Orbit Health Innovation Hub.

The state-owned Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Service (EPSS) recently began implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to streamline its operations. Although the nine-million-dollar project’s prospects signal early progress for the Enterprise, the ecosystem remains largely tethered to analogue tools and systems.