Frequently Asked Questions on ‘Fayyaa Ko’ App

What is Fayyaa Ko App?

Fayyaa Ko is an App for reporting COVID-19 symptoms. It does much more than reporting, with some of the benefits as listed below.

Individuals can use their smartphones to report symptoms daily, and that is from the comfort of their home or wherever they happen to be.
In most cases, no need to travel to a health centre—that’s no hassle, saves time and money too.
Contact with people is minimized as travel is avoided, which means infections are reduced.
The App makes it possible for the help to come to you, rather than you travel to get help. Once registered with the App, resources permitting, individuals may be reached by telephone, visited by a health worker, or in a severe case get an ambulance call.
The App can be used by as many people as possible. That is, a smartphone for running the App can be shared by family members or by friends.
Messaging and notifications are integral to the App which can be used for private communication between patients and healthcare professionals, as well as for educational and advisory messaging in Group and Broadcast modes of communications.
As important, mobile cloud technology driven by smartphones is the future of everything. Fayyaa Ko is an example of new things to come, so it’s time to get used to technologies like this one. Fayyaa Ko today is used for COVID-19 but has every potential to be used for various common illnesses and playing a vital role as innovative technology in healthcare.

Where Can I Get the Fayyaa Ko App?

The App is on Google Play where all the Android Apps can be found. Click or tap on the link below to get to and install the App.

Click here to find Fayyaa Ko App on Google Play

You will also find more definitive descriptions of the App at the above Google Play site as it is the official site for all Apps published for Google Android.

What Languages Are Supported with Fayyaa Ko App?

At present, Fayyaa Ko supports three languages: Afan Oromo, Amharic and English. Other languages can be easily added and the author of the App has already made a plea on Google Play for translators to come forward if they want other languages included. All that is required is translation of words, phrases and sentences, and nothing more technical than this.

We will provide the language files if you would like to take on this noble task; if so contact us on support@oromia.tech email. To avoid time-wasters, we shall ask questions to establish competency and experience, so include your telephone number with your email correspondence. Our preferred translators are those based at language departments of higher institutions, or notary translators as it would be relatively straightforward to validate competency through institution or association with professional organisations.

Who’s Behind the Fayyaa Ko App?

Fayyaa Ko App is developed by OROMIA TECH PLC, a technology company based in Adama, Oromia, Ethiopia. Fayyaa Ko App has an interesting story as how it came about (detailed story for another time) but suffice to say that the creator and author of the App, Dr Demessie Girma, a technologist with extensive experience in Mobile Cloud Computing and Mobile Apps, was inspired to come up with the App after meeting with a doctor working at a COVID centre and learning the challenges at an early stage of the pandemic . He named the App Fayyaa Ko which means My Health in English and ጤንነቴ in Amharic.

You can find out more about the Fayyaa Ko pilot project funded by a United Kingdom (UK) institution, currently running in and around the city of Adama and Mojo town. The OROMIA TECH PLC website is:

OROMIA TECH PLC

We also have a Facebook Page which you can reach by tapping on the following link:

OROMIA TECH PLC on Facebook

What’s the Pilot Project You Just Mentioned and More Info on This?

Yes, there is more info and you can read it here.

Is Fayyaa Ko App Available for the Apple iPhone?

Sorry, but no.

From as far back as 2015, we’ve made a conscious decision NOT to support the Apple iOS platform (for iPhone smartphones) in our App development, because the penetration of iPhone smartphones in Ethiopia is a miniscule 5% or less while that of Android is over 90%. Furthermore, design, development and testing for iOS platform, in our experience, is too demanding as compared to Android and Windows platforms, with the net result of too much app development efforts for too little gain in the Ethiopia scenario.

Is There Any Notable Mention of the Fayyaa Ko App?

A lot actually!

1. Personal Data

First of all, Fayyaa Ko App is designed with personal data security in mind. Our background is with the European data security laws, known as the General Data Protection Regulations or GDPR for short. Although GDPR doesn’t apply to Ethiopia, nevertheless, we use GDPR as guiding principle in our App designs where personal data is involved. Most importantly, we tell our App users upfront if personal data is used in any way, even unintentionally, and we inform them and seek explicit permissions. Users are in control whereby features capable of exposing personal data are enabled only with user’s consent.

A good example is the geolocation feature of a smartphone for which permission should be sought. While devices nowadays ask for certain obvious permissions, we go that extra mile in ensuring that personal data is kept safe and private in the strictest way possible. As an example, any personal medical information that is stored in a database (usually in the Cloud) will have all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) removed and replaced with some encrypted key. Getting hold of medical data on its own doesn’t identify individuals as the PII (such as names, addresses, tel numbers, etc) are all removed.

2. Allows Sharing Smartphones

We understand that not everybody owns a smartphone in developing countries like Ethiopia. A best estimate of smartphones penetration in Ethiopia is around 20%, though this figure could significantly improve with the recent nation-wide introduction of 4G by Ethio Telecom. This is the case, because the launch of 4G network services were coupled with promotion of smartphones with discounts around 30% or better.

One effective way of mitigating the low penetration of smartphones is sharing it if the App allows it. Fortunately, Fayyaa Ko is such an App that multiple users (typical of family and friends setting) can use for reporting COVID-19 symptom. After all, this is a pandemic that we should all come together to combat, and the shared spirit is after all well understood. If a family size of 4 to 5 persons share one smartphone, it means the effective number of smartphones will be significantly higher with regard to Fayyaa Ko App. The family size of 4 to 5 is more realistic for Ethiopia as Population Reference Bureau puts the average family size of Ethiopia at 4.6.

3. Small Space on Your Phone Device

Fayyaa Ko is designed around Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) platform. Your smartphone is merely used for display purposes with minimal computing and most of the processing is done by Cloud Backend Servers. We use the Azure Cloud which is Microsoft’s Cloud Technology. This also means that, all personal data mentioned above is kept in accordance with industry standard that Cloud Service Providers such as Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft can offer. Fayyaa Ko needs below average storage footprint (around 10 MB on download and around 30MB on device) well below the average for Android Apps. Better still, all user data generated over time are securely stored in the cloud and off the phone device, which means that there is no App bloating with user data increments over time.

4. The Clinicians’ Dashboard

The Clinicians’ Dashboard is a complementary App to the Fayyaa Ko App. While Fayyaa Ko App is for the public to report symptoms, Clinicians’ Dashboard is for the health professionals to monitor and deal with those symptoms on big screens, typical of laptops and desktops. For this reason, the Dashboard is running on the Windows platform (although there is no technical limitation to run on Android except for the need for larger screen size).

The Clinicians’ Dashboard is more like an Application than an App. An App is the name coined following the birth of smartphones to mean a “small application” that is tasked with a specific function and with relatively a small data files, while the name Application is reserved for hefty programs that deal with huge document files such as Microsoft Word or Excel. (An attempt was made to use Applet for small application but didn’t catch on).

To meet the requirement of multiple doctors’ sign-in and sign-out while using the same App on a PC, the Dashboard now enhanced to support a multi-user login authentication, which normally is outwith the realms of Apps.
To assist doctors with their limited time, the Clinicians’ Dashboard has demonstrated building of a “Patient History Summary” by synthesising significant events from historical records. The Patient History is presented to healthcare professionals as an easy reference while editing an Assessment Note for patients.

In the App author’s opinion, the Patient History synthesis is a remarkable feature of the Fayyaa Ko App, paving the way toward a truly Tele Health System (THS) . It demonstrates the vital role innovative technologies can play in assisting healthcare professionals. This relies on capturing of significant events from patient data records and this, in turn, calls for how records are structured and saved in the first place. Such approaches can go a long way to assist healthcare professionals this side of a fully-fledged application of AI (Artificial Intelligence) which is touted as the next technological revolution.

5. Local Problems, Local Solutions, Nurturing Local Talents!

Apps are global businesses but there are many technical issues that require localised design considerations. Digital infrastructures in developing countries are not well developed which means the assumptions made for developed countries may not apply for developing countries. Special data synchronisations may be required for networks that are not robust enough in terms of reliability and availability, particularly where coverage is limited. In short, localised problems call for specialised solutions. The prime objective of OROMIA TECH PLC is not only developing innovative technological solutions perse, but also taking account of the various challenges presented by less advanced infrastructure and limited network coverage. In so doing, we also aim to nurture local talents who apply their acquired knowledge in developing hands-on skills in real software designs as can be demonstrated by the Fayyaa Ko App. This is all in the technical context.

The same kind of local-problems demanding local solutions, apply in different developmental spheres, notably with healthcare which the Fayyaa Ko App is addressing. Fayyaa Ko App is a good example of that innovative solution tailored to the local needs because it is designed with those local challenges and limited resources in mind.