Despite being undergraduates, they have developed a groundbreaking telemedicine platform that is making healthcare services accessible to all, regardless of their location or social status.

In this week’s feature, Newspread‘s Flora Dairo had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO of JEAY Healthcare, Jesutoni Omiye, who will take us on a journey of how their cutting-edge technology is changing the face of healthcare delivery in Nigeria. From video conferencing to remote monitoring and mobile applications, JEAY Healthcare is leveraging the power of technology to make healthcare services more convenient, affordable, and accessible.

Join us as we explore the inspiring story of these young Nigerians who are making a difference in the world of healthcare delivery.

Excerpts:

1. Can you please tell us about yourself?
Answer: My name is Jesutoni Adedotun Omiye, an undergraduate student majoring in Anatomy at Ekiti State University, Ado Nigeria. Growing up, I learned the importance of hard work, diligence, and consistency, and have
applied these, not only academically, but in all aspects of my life. My exposure over time has
not only been restricted to the confinement of academics alone, but also to several issues of life.
These situations taught me the importance of self-confidence, social interactions, and relationships with people.
I am obsessed with solving global problems and have been involved in a lot of Model United Nations {MUN}, as an International delegate, Organizing committee member, and Core
secretariat member. I have a passion and interest in discussing international issues and relations and thus have been involved in a lot of NGOs, and Institutions solving these issues/problems. I was part of the Future African Ambassadorial Program for the 2021 Cohorts, where I published an article about the issues affecting Medical students in Africa.
I also serve as the Teams and Volunteers Lead for Hult Prize International Organization (EKSU
Chapter), where I am tasked with being in charge of the teams, training them, and getting them ready for the Hult Prize On-campus competition.
As a Medical student, in a bid to improve the medical conditions of Africa, I was also involved with the Federation of African Medical Students Association (FAMSA), as a West Africa officer, and as the Assistant Organizing Secretary of the Standing Committee of Health and Environment (FAMSA SCOHE).
Presently, I am the Co-Founder & CEO of JEAY Healthcare, a telemedicine healthtech Startup in Nigeria that is helping to provide very easily accessible, and affordable healthcare services for everyone.

2. I see that your health was the turning point that led to the building of JEAY healthcare, but what other thing motivated you?

Answer: Okay yes, my health was the primary motivation behind it. But it was not only that.
There was also the need to access healthcare services, and it was not just there. In school here, the only option for a student to talk to a doctor is by going to the health center, and it
is not always open, so access to health services is limited and easily accessible. I have seen many students self-medicate, or even google their symptoms just because their health center is not open, or it is too far for them to go.

So these were the things I saw and noticed around me that made us start to build JEAY Healthcare. We wanted to make access to healthcare as easily as possible, and that is what we are working to do.

3. What exactly is JEAY and what’s your modus operandi?

Answer: In simple terms, JEAY Healthcare is a digitalized telemedicine health tech Startup that helps to provide very easily accessible, and affordable healthcare services for everyone.

By providing good patient-friendly approaches ranging from e-Health, remote diagnosis, remote prescription, and video consultation. With JEAY, patients will be able to have
on-demand first-hand access to healthcare services from the comfort of their homes, or wherever they may be.

Okay, so first thing first the medium we will be using to serve our users is a Mobile app, that they could download, sign up and start using our services, available to them from wherever they may be, as I mentioned earlier, we have built one of the best telemedicine
app in Nigeria, and made the process of booking an appointment very easy, and fast (not up to 5 minutes to book an appointment). We still plan on building a web app to access through our website, but for now we are working with the mobile app.

We offer telemedicine services in Primary healthcare, Mental health, Sexual, and Reproductive health. Patients can get to consult with a doctor on our platform for any issues
pertaining to any of these healthcare services. For these services, we charge 1000 naira per consultation, a patient is required to pay this fee before consulting with a doctor, then after
the payment, they have access to the doctor.

We also have the Online Pharmacy, and online medical test section, these products are not our direct products, but can be accessed through our app. We have partnered with Famasi
Africa to help fulfill the medication needs of our patients, patients can order the drugs/medications recommended by a doctor right there on the app, and get it delivered right to
their doorstep.

Also, we partnered with Healthtracka for the online medical test section,
patients/users do not need to go to a hospital or laboratory to carry out any required tests, they can simply book the test through our mobile app, and the laboratory technicians come
to their home to take the samples, and they get their results in their mail within 24 hours (the pricing of these products is determined by the companies we have partnered with).

And lastly, we have the Online Medical store section. This is where users can get to order anything medical-related that they need, they don’t have to go to a physical medical store to buy them anymore, they can be ordered right here on our app, and they get delivered
right to them (we won’t be launching this product yet, as it will come as an update to the app within the next 6 months).

4. Prior to creating the healthcare app, how accessible for you were drugs and treatment?

Answer: For me, anytime I am sick or not feeling too well, I always go home for treatment, because my mom is a nurse, so that’s what I do. I know a couple of people at school too, that anytime they fall sick, go home for treatment. In fact, most people at school do.
The other option is to go to a pharmacy and get drugs to use. So drugs and treatment are not as easily accessible as they are supposed to be. This is one of the reasons why we are building JEAY, to provide easy access to healthcare services.

5. What improvements do you think the JEAY healthcare app needs, if any?

Answer: For now, we are not sure of any improvement that the app needs. As we just launched like 3 weeks ago, and are still gathering feedback from users, and working on that.

Yes, we have some ideas and updates that we want to bring to it, for example, we want to launch our Online pharmacy, and Online laboratory service on the app and we are really
working on it at the moment.

Anything that helps make healthcare easily accessible, we are up for it.

6. What was the process of building the telemedicine app like for you?

Answer: To be honest, the process was not easy at all. As students, there were some challenges we faced along the way, mainly financial, but we got our way around it (we are actively working to raise our pre-seed funding at the moment though). We started building around May 2022, and that was when we started on the idea, had to do our due diligence, and a lot of research, on the tech aspect also. There was a lot of work to be done, with just a little time, but I am glad for the team I have, we were able to get a lot of things
done in time for launching, and we are still working to get things done.

But all in all, the process was really amazing and interesting. We were able to learn a lot of things along the way (and are still learning). As students, building a health tech at the same time has been exciting, meeting with people, learning, and we are really glad that we
are helping to solve this problem.

7. There are a number of healthcare tech solutions provider companies in Nigeria, how are you coping with the competition?

Answer: Okay, so what mainly makes us different/stand out among other telemedicine startups in Nigeria, is first, Our Team; my team comprises mainly of people who have all
been affected by the problem we are trying to solve, and we are very passionate about.solving this problem, and making our solution work, we won’t stop until we achieve this.

Secondly is how affordable our services are. One of the reasons behind people not getting access to healthcare is pricing, we are providing affordable healthcare, that is still very efficient and efficient as receiving healthcare services in a big private hospital (even better).
We also have the flexible accessibility advantage, and ease of use; our app is easily accessible and very very easy to use. To book an appointment with a doctor will not take
up to 3 minutes…and you have the option of messaging, audio calls, and video calls.

We have major competitors, some of which include Dro health, Healthconnect 24/7, Ezzycare, because they offer some of the same services we do. But what makes us trump theirs is first, no one offers the same exact services we do, we have embedded the online medical test, pharmacy, and online store to our product which most of them do not. We also have our mobile app, which is very easily accessible (can be accessed at all times, no downtime experienced at all), with a very amazing user interface, and experience. We also have our affordability, as we are more affordable than 75-80% of telemedicine companies in Nigeria, and 90% more affordable than hospitals, we have good patient-friendly approaches, as we work with amazing medical practitioners. Finally, last but not the least, we have our team, comprised of main students who really understand the problem, and
are very adamant to solve it.

8. Apart from building an online medical store and working towards growth in the user base and downloads, what other goals do you have outlined for JEAY that you hope to have accomplished by the end of the year?

Answer: Okay, what you have mentioned are the main goals that we are working towards. But we would love to get physical office space (as we all work remotely for now), get more
medical practitioners to work with us, partner with hospitals, and other health tech companies, launch our home-visit service and increase our team members (that way providing more Jobs directly), and we want to raise our Pre-seed funding, which will help us to achieve all this, and more.

9. What do you think the future is for telemedicine in Nigeria?

Answer: Talking about the health tech industry in Nigeria, I will dwell mainly on Telemedicine (as part/form of heal tech).

Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare services remotely using telecommunication technology. The telemedicine industry in Nigeria has been growing in recent years, driven by
factors such as the increasing availability of internet, and mobile phone infrastructure, as well as a growing need for accessible, and affordable healthcare.

In Africa, telemedicine is
being used in a variety of ways, including remote consultations, diagnosis, and treatment of
patients, as well as the sharing of medical data, and education. Telemedicine is particularly.

Useful in rural and remote areas, where access to healthcare is often limited. One of the major benefits of telemedicine in Nigeria is that it allows patients in remote areas to access
specialists who may not be available locally. This is particularly important for conditions such as cancer, and heart disease, which require specialist treatment. Telemedicine also helps to
reduce the need for patients to travel long distances for medical care, which can be difficult and costly.
I feel really positive about the future of telemedicine in Nigeria, and generally the health tech industry, a lot of companies are doing great things in this space, and I am really glad to be
part of them. I know that telemedicine is here to stay.

10. Why are you happy to be this week’s Newspread Nigerian of the week?
Answer: A couple reasons actually but yes because it generally feels good to be acknowledged for the work we do at JEAY Healthcare.
As an undergraduate student, I’m really surprised that I am being featured for this, so being the Newspread Nigerian of the Week is a really great opportunity and I’ll say I’m grateful.

Each week the Newspread team will be scouring the globe to bring you a brand new ‘Newspread Nigerian of The Week’ doing great things in their space and creating news worth spreading in their area of expertise. Be sure to join us…and if you think you know an amazing Nigerian creating news worth spreading, please reach out to us at nnotw@newspread.ng

Please connect with JEAY Healthcare at the social handles below:

Web address: https://jeayhealthcare.com/
Instagram handle: @jeay_healthcare
Twitter handle: @JeayHealthcare
Linkedin: JEAY Healthcare
Name of mobile app: Telemedical