Have you ever zipped around town looking for a drug that seems to have been made up by the doctor? It is quite frustrating having to visit pharmacy after pharmacy looking for medicine and finding empty shelves, especially when there is a bedridden patient in desperate need of the drugs.
Enter the MIS
The Medical Information Service (MIS) is a local startup that wants to solve this problem. Their vision is to provide:
- real-time information about where people can find specific medicines in Zimbabwe, and
- real-time information about the prices of those medicines
So, how does one get this sweet deal? The solution shows that true Zimbabweans worked on this. They realised that most Zimbabweans will have access to WhatsApp and only WhatsApp and so users need only save the Medical Information Service number (0776 640 888) in their phones and make enquiries through WhatsApp. The process goes like so:
- Save 0776 640 888 in your contacts
- text the MIS the name of the medicine you are looking for, or a picture showing clearly the name of the medicine. Do NOT send a picture that shows people’s names
- Text the MIS where exactly in Zimbabwe you are and the method of payment you want to use at the pharmacy (USD, ZWL, Swipe, Ecocash or Medical aid).
- (Do note that this a text only platform and so do not try to call the number, only text will be responded to)
Turnaround time
They promise that you will get the details of the pharmacies that report to have this medicine and their prices, in under 10 minutes. Of course, some medicines are a bit scarce and may take longer than 10 minutes to find. The time of day a user sends their request and network challenges may also affect this turnaround time.
Medical aid
Those that have tried to purchase medicine using medical aid cards will tell you that pharmacies are quite picky when it comes to accepting those. With the MIS, you will know which pharmacies accept your medical aid card before you take one step.
How MIS works
MIS has access to over 200 pharmacies and over 600 pharmaceutical personnel currently. So, put simply, MIS contacts those pharmacies on behalf of the user and relays the information received.
They will continue signing up more pharmacies and so the service will only get better in time.
Oh, and it doesn’t cost a thing to you, the user. MIS does not charge users for their enquiries. All you need to have is your WhatsApp bundle and you’re good to go. You really have nothing to lose and so you might as well try MIS and see how it works out.
And that’s it, you will know exactly where to go to get the medicine and how much it will cost. You, as a user of the MIS service really have nothing to lose.
You can follow the MIS on twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
In closing
This service reminds me of Zumbani Health. Except Zumbani seeks to connect you with doctors, specialists and diagnostic labs. So you select the physician there and once you see the doctor and get a prescription, the MIS will then help you find the medicine. The two services work together quite nicely.
You gotta love these local solutions for local problems.
13 comments
Interesting. Sounds very convenient. Is the MIS system based on a WhatsApp chatbot ?
Nothing interesting??? Like serious you can’t call such s*** a startup (that is exactly what I am implying…bull****) then people whine and complain about how the government is not solving the Zimbabwean crisis and you have the audacity to call such trash local solution to local problems nxaaa Maybe if they were having a handling business where they would go and acquire the meds for you and deliver to your door for a norminal fee pamwe taimboti vane nyaya irinani but as it is it is not worth the mention
Its a start. Particularly considering it’s free. No need to be so rude.
There’s anger without sufficient points denoting failures or inadequacies. The brain is angry, the brain has failed, the brain should calm down.
Yeah, I guess we are looking at this from different perspective. My perspective is that the service is quite convenient given that I understand the hassle of hunting for medication in a large metropolis like Harare. Imagine looking for medication and trying to get quotes from different pharmacies from Fourth Street up to the Westend area. That has been my ordeal. It was inconvenient to me. That is why I was interested by the idea of a centralized medication lookup database.
Look up a Zim app called Dial A Med, it’s the most convenient and well developed app I’ve ever seen in Zimbabwe
Look up a Zim app called Dial A Med, it’s the most convenient and well developed app I’ve ever seen in Zimbabwe, you can buy medication from anywhere in the world for someone in Zim or for yourself if based in Zim, multiple payment options and doorstep delivery
Intresting inovation. It saves lives.
Some comments don’t deserve to see the light of day.
This is simply Uber but for meds, well done but am not sure if we have yet tapped into the manufacturing of meds, there’s a gap in that
True, but that is a hard hill to climb wit India in the market. They are killing it 😉 in the generic meds game right now.
Well we could be strong enough for the int market thus if we get to be strong on a local®ional market first…Am sure the human capital is available, the natural resources and herbs to manufacture is as well available
Well i can simply look up Pharmacy whatsapp or call numbers on google and talk to them directly