How portable heart monitors transformed healthcare in Siaya County
Philips Wind-up Doppler Ultrasound Fetal Heart Rate Monitor .
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“Initially, I had been very sickly, yet every time I went to my local hospital, the doctors couldn’t really figure out what was wrong with me,” she explains.
All this changed when she walked into her local Simenya Health Centre one day and, unlike previously, this time around she was able to access the medical tests she required.
In 2017, Lucy Wasira, a 46-year-old hairdresser in Simenya, Siaya County, was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
This happened after she was rushed to hospital having almost fainted while working at her salon.
That was the tipping point of a sequence of illnesses that had previously befallen her before finding out exactly what was wrong with her.
“Initially, I had been very sickly, yet every time I went to my local hospital, the doctors couldn’t really figure out what was wrong with me,” she explains.
All this changed when she walked into her local Simenya Health Centre one day and, unlike previously, this time around she was able to access the medical tests she required.
Simenya Health Centre was one of five facilities in Siaya County that were included in the MoyoAfya project in 2022.
The project was implemented by the Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance Kenya, in collaboration with the Siaya County Government and with support from the Philips Foundation.
“It began by interventional study by providing training and mentorship to primary and secondary healthcare providers,” explains Jared Odhiambo Owuor, the programmes officer at the Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance Kenya and the MoyoAfya project officer.
The aim of the project was educating primary healthcare providers and introducing innovative technologies at Level III facilities. Thirty-two Level III healthcare providers were trained.
Mr Odhiambo said that the initiative was to demonstrate that addition of portable electrocardiography, the art of using portable devices to measure the heart, were key.
“The main mission was to enhance effective triage with early detection and referral of cardiovascular disease cardiovascular disease patients in resource constrained settings,” said Mr Odhiambo.
With the utilisation of the MoyoAfya protocol, said to Odhiambo, a total of 979 patients were screened, with 228 undergoing ECGs and 165 receiving echocardiograms.
“This screening led to discovery of severe non-communicable diseases from 23 percent of ECG and 16 percent echocardiogram scans, who would have otherwise been missed,” said Prof Gerald Yonga, a senior consultant cardiologist.
Prof Yonga added that the project was inspired by the realisation that non-communicable diseases and cardiovascular diseases are rapidly increasing in Kenya.
According to experts, screening your heart health allows physicians to detect the earliest signs of cardiovascular disease.
