Reaching every patient, on any phone, smartphone or not
Most patient portals quietly assume a smartphone and good data. Across Africa, that leaves most patients out. Here is how to reach every patient, on whatever phone they have.
Your patients are already on WhatsApp, or already use USSD on a basic phone. The easiest way to engage them is to meet them there, not ask them to learn something new.
The easiest channel to engage a patient on is the one they already use every day. Across Africa, that channel is rarely a dedicated health app the patient has to discover, download, and learn. For enormous numbers of patients, it is WhatsApp, where they already message family and friends. For many others, especially on basic phones, it is USSD, the simple menu-driven service they already use for airtime and mobile money. A patient asked to download and learn a new app faces a barrier; a patient reached on WhatsApp or USSD faces none, because they are already there and already know how it works. Meeting patients on these familiar channels is the difference between engagement that happens and engagement that stalls at the download screen.
Meeting patients on WhatsApp and USSD is about making engagement effortless by reaching patients where they already live, with nothing new to learn.
Asking patients to adopt a dedicated app raises barriers many will not cross:
The common cause is that a new app asks the patient to come to the hospital’s channel, rather than the hospital coming to the patient’s. Most patients will not make that journey for an occasional interaction.
Veona Portal meets patients on WhatsApp and USSD, alongside SMS and the web, so engaging with their care happens on channels they already use. A patient interacts on WhatsApp the way they already message everyone else. A basic-phone patient uses USSD the way they already top up airtime. There is nothing new to download, nothing new to learn, because the channel is already familiar. This is what makes reaching every patient on any phone genuinely effortless.
The best channel to reach a patient is the one already on their phone and already in their habits. WhatsApp and USSD meet patients where they live.
Meeting patients on familiar channels does not mean offering less. The patient can book, get results, and stay reminded, and access their health records, through these channels, in the form that fits. The functionality is delivered where the patient already is, so engaging with their care is as easy as using the apps and services they use every day. Effortless access and real functionality come together, rather than the patient having to choose between an easy channel and a useful one.
USSD deserves particular emphasis, because it reaches the patient a smartphone-only approach leaves out entirely. A patient with a basic phone, no app, no data, can still book, receive a result, and stay in touch over USSD, the same menu-driven service they already use. For the large share of patients on basic phones, this is the difference between being in the loop and being excluded. Meeting them on USSD is a matter of inclusion, not just convenience.
The value of meeting patients on WhatsApp and USSD is engagement that is effortless because it happens where patients already live, with nothing new to download or learn. The WhatsApp patient and the basic-phone USSD patient both engage with their care on the channels already in their hands and habits. For a hospital that wants its patients to actually use the engagement it offers, meeting them where they already are is the surest way to make it happen.
See patients book, get results, and stay in touch over WhatsApp and USSD. Book a demo and we will walk the familiar channels with you.
Most patient portals quietly assume a smartphone and good data. Across Africa, that leaves most patients out. Here is how to reach every patient, on whatever phone they have.
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We will tailor a demo to how your hospital, clinic, or lab actually runs, offline behaviour, payments, reporting, and all.