Brenda wanted to become a medical doctor since she was a little girl. She was so interested in the health sector and wanted to make a difference. However, her medical doctor dreams did not happen. She went ahead to become a telecommunications engineer but realized that she could still do something to help her first love – the health sector. Brenda was going to use her tech skills to improve the access Ugandans had to health care.
When the opportunity to share her ideas came through the ITU Young Innovator’s Competition she took advantage of it and it paid off.
She received seed funding to start the company, InstaHealth. Wondering what it is? InstaHealth is a mobile application that enables anybody with a feature phone or a smartphone to access health information instantly.
It uses geo-location and an interactive voice response (IVR) system to instantly connect users to health centres, specialists and ambulances, whilst also providing an instant first aid guide, doctor consultations and health awareness information. This service is built on very simple technologies that more than 40 per cent of Ugandan population can access.
Her advice to other entrepreneurs is this, “Focus on the product. A lot of questions will come up about how you make money. But if you focus on creating a quality product that people will use to solve real life challenges, there will always be opportunities to monetize your solution.”
