Case study: Gravity digital ID solution enables vulnerable migrants in Kenya to receive consistent healthcare services
Since 2019, Gravity has been providing decentralized identity solutions for the Dignified Identities for Cash assistance project (DIGID). The first phase was implemented by KRCS to meet the needs of the vulnerable populations without official IDs to receive cash assistance during covid-19. Over KES 2.1 million (19,000 dollars) were distributed to more than 300 households to address their essential needs.
Starting this year, the second phase of the project (DIGID 2) is planned until July to apply the learnings on Digital IDs so far to the migration context in Uganda and Kenya. The aim is to further test the DIGID Platform within a new setting — that of enabling vulnerable migrants to receive healthcare services with the help of verifiable health credentials.
Digital ID solutions for healthcare services
Digital Identities have been increasingly used in the healthcare sector to record and share patients’ medical and treatment history and ensure consistent care. Inspired by Good Health Pass Initiative, Gravity’s digital ID solution empowers patients to securely store and share their medical data while providing reliable means for healthcare providers to identify and authenticate patients.
Gravity’s digital ID solution is based on decentralized identity and blockchain technology, it provides user-centric platforms for data sharing and identity verification, and multiple interfaces for various types of users(smartphone, feature phone, no phone) to achieve an inclusive digital ID ecosystem.
In the context of healthcare services, Gravity enables patients to create their digital wallets and health service providers to issue verifiable medical credentials to patients’ digital wallets. When the patients go to healthcare service points, their credentials, which contain medical data like treatment history, prescription, and disease records will be verified. The data that has been shared between patients and health service providers are verifiable, accurate, and streamlined.
With Gravity, DIGID 2 is designed to promote dignity for migrants, balancing their needs to reveal critical information about themselves (due to fears or concerns about being identified) and also facilitate their access to healthcare services.
Medical credentials for migrants in Kenya: challenges and solutions
The digital ID solution for healthcare will be piloted in the Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei integrated settlement. The Kakuma refugee camp is located in north-western Kenya, in the Turkana West sub-county, and was created in 1992 following the arrival of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”. Kalobeyei integrated settlement was created in 2015 to decongest the Kakuma refugee camp and promote self-resilience among the refugees and encourage integration between the host community and the refugees.
Health care services in Kakuma camp and Kalobeyei integrated settlement are free for both refugees and the host community. However, refugees face unique barriers to accessing free health care such as requirements for documentation before service, continuity of health care, the threat of harassment, and language barriers.
Currently, the KRCS in Kakuma and Kalobeyei manually processes the health records of patients making it difficult to keep the records of people and track their disease progress. Furthermore, no digital records are issued to patients as they move around even across borders, which affects their continuation of medical plans.
To overcome the obstacles, Gravity’s digital ID solution helps the KRCS to create digital medical credentials for patients, and enables healthcare providers to track and share their medical records.
To create a medical credential, KRCS will issue a digital wallet containing the patient’s medical data based on the manually-processed medical card that has been currently used. For patients who have a smartphone, they can directly view and manage their medical credentials on their wallet application; for patients who are equipped with feature phones, they can interact with their credentials via a dedicated USSD menu; for those who don’t have a phone, the medical credentials will be stored in a printed QR code.
After receiving the medical credential, when the patient goes to a designated health facility operated by the KRCS, their medical credential will be verified. The verifier can check when testing was done, by whom, what medication was prescribed, and what steps for follow-up were recommended.
Each time when the medical testing or treatment was done, the information will be stored in the same digital wallet. In the future, more issuers and verifiers will be onboarded, for example, the International Rescue Committee, Kakuma Mission Hospital, Ministry of Health, and UNHCR.
Gravity’s digital ID solution for healthcare will change how patients fundamentally interact with health systems, clinics, pharmacies, medicine delivery networks, and public health organizations.
The benefits of digital medical credentials are:
- For patients: the quality of healthcare and experience will be dramatically improved, and the transferability of care regardless of physical location is also possible. More importantly, patients are able to control personal information data sharing with healthcare providers.
- For healthcare providers: the efficiency in care planning and management will be improved, and patients’ data can be easier shared between different hospitals and clinics to keep medical records.
About Gravity
Gravity builds trusted decentralized identity solutions based on blockchain technology for individuals, organizations and governments. Users leverage Gravity to safely share their personal data to access aid, financing, employment and government services. Organizations and international NGOs use Gravity to efficiently collect verifiable data for improved service delivery, interoperability and impact. Our human-centered digital ID solutions accelerate the financial inclusion and empowerment of all people, anywhere in the world. Our work includes providing digital IDs for vulnerable individuals seeking humanitarian aid, small business owners in Africa seeking financing, refugees seeking employment and thought leadership in the government identity space. Gravity is based in Nairobi, Kenya and Paris, France.
Gravity is grateful to the Kenya Red Cross Society and the DIGID consortium of international NGOs and for their support and assistance throughout the DIGID Project.
To learn more about Gravity, visit our website at www.gravity.earth or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.
