Partnership to roll out world-class mobile health platform

BARCELONA: Myca’s representative in Kuwait, Kamran Lari (2nd Left) shakes hands with Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Group Vice-Chairman, flanked by Emre Gurkan, Zain Group Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer (L) and Jennifer Suleiman, Zain Group Head of Corporate Sustainability (R).

BARCELONA: Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces entering a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Myca Health Inc. (Myca), an innovative Canadian- based leader in the development of unique proprietary software for scalable IT web based platforms. Myca's expertise extends to mobile telephone networks, permitting cost effective and time efficient management of access and delivery of health and medical services to its users.

The MoU between the two organizations provides for the development and implementation of a world-class mobile electronic medical health record (EMR) platform across Zain's network, powered and customized by the telco for each specific market. The service is in alignment with Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) of the UN's Global Goals for Sustainable Development and is planned to be gradually rolled out across Zain markets in the second-half of 2017.

Once fully implemented, the project will allow Zain to offer to its users a controlled and secured mobile interface for access to physician services, scheduling of appointments, non-face to face mobile consultations, and access to electronic prescriptions, among other services. The Zain mobile health interface (patient portal) will also include secure storage of all health records on a user's mobile device, together with health and wellness applications that track nutrition and exercise, and allow monitoring of remote patient care management as needed.

Commenting on the MoU, Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Group Vice-Chairman said, "This collaboration represents the very best of our efforts, combining technology and innovation, with the tangible improvement of people's health and well-being and ultimately, their lives. We believe the state-of-the-art digital solutions offered by Myca complemented by our local knowledge and strong customer base in the region will make for an extremely impactful interaction."

Leonard B C Schlemm, Myca Health's Chairman, stated, "We are very excited about the prospect of being able to work with the innovating and dynamic leadership of Zain's management and technical teams. We strongly believe that the unique product that Myca has to offer, developed and refined over many years of extensive research and development, will adapt very well to the Zain mobile platform and secure Zain's continued leadership in the region in the delivery of mobile telephone services and applications. We expect that this will also add greatly to improving health outcomes of the region's population."

Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 47 million active customers as of 31 December, 2016. With a commercial presence in 8 countries, Zain operates in: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Lebanon, the Group manages 'touch' on behalf of the government.