KMTC graduate fulfils dream of owning medical facility at 33

Chelimo Fatuma Omeke owes her resolve to own a medical facility by age 33 years to her former boss Sam Thenya, the CEO and founder of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital.

That was in 2001 when Nairobi Women’s Hospital opened its doors for the first time. Why 33 years? Dr Thenya, she says, was 33 when he founded Nairobi Women’s.

Ms Omeke knew dreaming was one thing and making it was another. And 12 years later, she is proud to see the dream come true. She is the managing director and owner of E-med Kenya Ltd, an Android-based application offering a quick reference for drug information.

“This involves correct drug dosage and indication,” she told Business Daily.

Now valued at more than Sh473,000 (US$5500), the bulk of the budget has gone into developing medical software. The bulk of the funds came from savings and family contributions.

The Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) graduate dreamt of having a physical medical facility but has since developed an online pharmacy, a feat she considers much grander in the digital age.

The application is hinged on the concept of continuing medical education (CME), in which doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners train continuously and get accreditation.

She remembers an incident at Guru Nanak Sikh Hospital in which a patient was rushed in after reacting to Penicillin, a condition called Stevens Johnsons Syndrome in medical parlance. After the case was handled successfully, Ms Omeke had many questions lingering through her mind.

How many such incidents go unreported and just how many are fortunate to get quick and correct medication, she ponders.

She noticed many Kenyans buy over-the-counter drugs without proper prescription. She resolved to one day reverse that without knowing how.
In 2007, she left her job at Guru Nanak Sikh Hospital after her first child owing to increased family duties.

As a show of her steely determination, the mother of three reminisces back into 2008, the year the online pharmacy bug bit her while still jobless; she used her husband’s laptop.

“When I went for labour with my second child, I had a laptop with me in the maternity bed and only shoved it aside when the child was near,” she says with a reflective tone. She was all along working on Emed-K.

When Ms Omeke got a marketing job at Meditech International in Nairobi, “her eyes opened wide.”

As a drugs marketer, she could wait for hours on end before accessing casualty doctors and nurses in various hospitals and this took a toll on her patience. 

This, she says, was a turning point for her and fuelled her resolve to work round the clock to have an online substitute.

“I noted with regret the gap that existed in the industry despite the technological gains made in this era and I vowed to myself to do something about it,” she says.

The government founded and registered My Online Pharmacy Ltd (MOPL), in 2009. In 2011, m-Health was launched followed by e-Health in 2012.

M-health enables access to medical services easily and faster through phones while e-Health provides an online list of public health centres across the country.

After registering MOPL, she developed an updated package of Emed-K in December 2012.

Having won Sh0.5 million in the Innovation category of the 2012 Enablis ILO Safaricom Foundation Business Plan Competition, her eyes are set for even greater things this year. She has approached GSK in a bid to work out an advertising deal on the Emed-K platform.