If you’re travelling over the festive season, a digital health vault is a ‘life admin hack’ that will ensure you travel and holiday with peace of mind, knowing that your family’s health information is safely stored and easily accessible.
Family holidays are the time for making precious memories. However, when organising things like transport, accommodation and packing, it’s easy to overlook other essentials that may be required, such as access to your medical information in the event of an accident or illness. Fear not, Ajuda – a free-to-use digital platform – provides a secure digital health vault to upload and store all your health information, including vaccination records, operations, allergies, scripts, visits to healthcare providers, medical history, next of kin and more.
Also read our safety tips for travelling while pregnant and our article on how to have a hassle-free holiday.
take your medical records with you
Storing digital copies of your medical records is the best way to keep them safe while you’re travelling. It also means you can access them on holiday if you need them. “Storing your health records in a secure digital health vault, such as Ajuda, ensures that not only are your records easily accessible, but they are protected under stringent protocols such as Password Protection and Two Factor Authentication, and are securely encrypted,” says Allan Macfarlane, Ajuda’s chief technical officer. “Ajuda is POPIA compliant, aligns to industry best practice, international guideline compliance and all regulatory requirements to ensure the secure management, privacy and protection of consumer information.”
Keep your medical records up to date in your digital health vault and you’ll have the peace of mind they’re safely stored in a secure place where you can access them easily from anywhere in the world. Just snap pictures of your most important records and upload them to the digital health vault.
Here are some ways a digital health vault can help make your holiday stress-free.
keep track of vaccinations and travel medication
Malaria remains one of the biggest killers in Africa. If you’re travelling to a malaria area, such as the Kruger National Park or certain parts of our neighbouring countries, it’s highly advisable to take malaria prophylaxis.
Remember, the malaria map shifts as climate patterns change, so don’t assume your destination is malaria-free just because the risk was low the last time you visited.
Travelling to another country? A travel clinic can advise you on any vaccinations you may need. Many countries require a yellow fever vaccination, for example, which you can then store in the Vaccination folder in the digital vault.
Use the vault: store your family’s vaccination records in your digital health vault so you can easily access and produce them if required. A small percentage of people may experience unpleasant side effects with certain medications. Be sure to upload the meds you’re taking into the Medications folder on your vault, so you can keep track of any side effects you may experience.
be careful when travelling with medicine
If you take chronic medication or you’re just organised and you like to be prepared, take note: if you’re travelling to another country, research whether you’re allowed to take your medication into that country, even if you’re just going to be in transit. Anti-drug laws vary and what may be an over-the-counter headache tablet in South Africa, could be an illegal narcotic somewhere else with serious consequences for anyone caught with it.
Even if it is permitted, make sure you travel with your medication in its original packaging with your name on the label, indicating it was dispensed to you.
Use the vault: upload copies of your prescriptions and the contact details of the prescribing doctors into the Medications folder on your Ajuda Digital Health Vault so that you can quickly and easily access these if airport authorities ask for them.
game-changing healthcare development
In addition to the many benefits offered by a digital health vault when travelling, Ajuda has partnered with the National Metabolomics Platform (NMP), hosted at the Centre for Human Metabolomics at North-West University, to develop a platform where parents can start building a lifelong medical record for their children from birth. A baby’s newborn screening results can be uploaded directly to a parent’s secure digital storage vault, forming the foundation of a lifelong medical record.
Newborn screening is usually performed within three days of birth. A healthcare professional pricks the baby’s heel to get a blood sample, which is sent away for analysis (in South Africa, the NMP is currently the only laboratory screening for 22 conditions simultaneously). It’s quick and there’s no risk to your baby, but the benefits can be enormous.
“Ensure your child’s wellbeing isn’t left to chance. A simple and affordable test can make a big difference in your child’s life,” says Dr Ilse Du Preez, acting director at the Centre for Human Metabolomics NMP. “Just like you check your newborn’s hearing and vision and keep up with vaccinations, it’s important to consider testing for genetic metabolic disorders early on. Detecting these issues early can have a lasting impact on your child’s health. Take this important step for your child’s future and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing.”
“This test is recommended as it can detect treatable conditions,” adds Dr Liza Street, a paediatrician and co-founder of Ajuda. “Identifying these problems early allows for timely intervention. However, if a problem is only recognised after the child begins exhibiting symptoms, it may be too late – the damage may already be done.
“Ajuda is simple and easy to use and means no more stressing about losing your family’s medical records or struggling to keep track of medication. Using Ajuda, parents can build a complete, unbroken medical record for their children. Through this partnership, that record can start from birth. Newborn screening is just the start of a baby’s health screening journey – many screenings will follow and these results can also be captured and added to Ajuda, building a solid foundation for the child’s healthcare in future.
“For now, parents can upload the result to Ajuda. But, ultimately, the goal of this partnership will be for the result to be added directly to the baby’s Ajuda digital health vault, ensuring better communication of health information. This centralised approach helps to maintain continuity of care and keeps all relevant parties informed about the baby’s health status.”
