South Korean telco KT has launched a high-quality health app to prevent epidemics in Ghana. The app called Global Epidemic Prevention Platform, or GEPP will alert Ghanaians of areas affected by epidemics such as Ebola and connect them to nearby clinics.
Korea and West African country have been working to start the endeavor since November last year.
KT first proposed that telcos around the world could share data to prevent contagions back in 2016. In the same year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN to build a big data system for use in global contagion prevention.
Those in Ghana can download the app which offers three types of services called GEPP Public, GEPP Clinic, and GEPP Gov.
GEPP Public warns Ghanaians who are visiting epidemic-prone areas; GEPP Clinic enables the public to make real-time reports to health offices if an epidemic erupts; and GEPP Gov. enables the government to gauge and monitor a public health crisis based on data collected from GEPP Public and GEPP Clinic. Data is also collected from newly digitized airport immigration information, which until now has been manually compiled.
KT and Ghana are hoping that the platform will allow better reactions to Ebola, cholera and malaria that are rampant in the region.
This step won’t stop there. The telco is also working with its Kenyan counterpart Safaricom to roll out a similar service.