Vula

Designing a specialist referral and medical chat system from scratch
Overview
Vula is an app that facilitates referrals to specialists - for example, a doctor working in primary care might use it to refer to an orthopaedic surgeon in the nearest tertiary hospital. I took an idea and turned it into a design, and helped to turn the design into reality.
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Numbers
From zero patients in 2014 to over 40,000 referrals per month in 2022.
From one speciality in 2014 to over 60 in 2022.
More than 10 academic papers demonstrate the usefulness of the software in the public health system.

Version 1: A side project

Dec 2013 - Oct 2015
In late 2013, while running a UX consulting agency, I was approached by an ophthalmologist with an idea for a referral app. He had no money, but he had a well-defined problem and solution, and I was interested in healthcare. I helped him to sketch out the idea and created an Android prototype using Axure. The prototype helped him to win the SAB Innovation Prize and secure enough money to build Version 1 of the app: a referral app for ophtalmology.

Left, the first concept sketches for the app.
Right, the first prototype of Vula, which won the SAB Innovation prize and enough money to build Version 1.

Version 2: UX & Product Lead

Nov 2015 - Jul 2018
I was the only person working full time on Vula. I designed the second version of the app and used an external dev team to develop it. Vula went from a referral tool in just ophthalmology, to a referral tool for any speciality. During 2016 I grew the number of referrals per month by an average of 25% every month.
Contextual research with orthopaedic surgeons in a hospital, and designs of the second iteration of the app.

Version 3: UX & Product Lead

Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
I went back to Vula in 2022 to oversee the launch of the 3rd version of the app, which had been delayed several times by feature bloat. We simplified, and launched within a few months.
Version 3 of Vula incorporated group chat to facilitate multi-trauma referral discussion, the ability to go on call for more than one team, and improved inbox management.
Some of Vula's funding comes from foundations and donors. To facilitate applications for this type of funding, I created an evidence-based Theory of Change, demonstrating how Vula reduces morbidity and mortality in underserved communities.

Vula in the literature

Some of the papers that have been written about the use of Vula in various healthcare settings in Africa.

2024
Time to regional surgical care in rural South Africa‍
2023
The use of a mobile software application to improve the management of open tibia fractures in a resource-constrained environment
The impact of a decentralised orthopaedic service on tertiary referrals in Cape Town, South Africa
Voyaging through the paediatric surgical maze: A multi-centre analysis of inter-hospital referrals to Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Facilitating remote access to specialist medical expertise through the scaled up adoption of a smartphone application: A South African case
Use of the Vula App to refer patients in the West Coast District: A descriptive exploratory qualitative study
The Interplay Between Technology Performativity and Health Care Professionals in Hospital Settings: Service Design Approach

2020
Integration of mHealth Information and Communication Technologies Into the Clinical Settings of Hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa: Qualitative Study
COVID-19 response in low- and middle-income countries: Don’t overlook the role of mobile phone communication
2021
Investigating the effect of the Vula Mobile app on coordination of care and capacity building in district health services, Cape Town: Convergent mixed methods study
We Asked the Experts: The Promises and Challenges of Surgical Telehealth in Low Resourced Settings
2019
Orthopaedic referrals using a smartphone app : uptake, response times and outcome
Mobile Teleconsultations in Acute Burn Care: Acceptance and User-Experience Among Emergency Care Providers in Resource-Poor Settings
2018
Teleconsultation Using Mobile Phones for Diagnosis and Acute Care of Burn Injuries Among Emergency Physicians: Mixed-Methods Study

debre.barrett@gmail.com+31 6 53 75 94 17linkedin