Echonomia PostCHIL AI Lab has expanded its digital healthcare platform with a new AI-powered e-Ward Round capability, enabling specialist doctors to remotely participate in the care of admitted patients at rural and underserved hospitals across Africa. The capability extends CHIL Group’s existing telemedicine infrastructure beyond individual consultations into the inpatient ward, allowing frontline healthcare workers to conduct structured digital ward rounds with remote specialists while patients remain in the hospitals where they were admitted.
Bringing AI and specialists to the hospital ward
Across Africa, many rural hospitals have nurses, clinical officers, and other frontline healthcare workers providing care to admitted patients, but have limited or intermittent access to specialist doctors. As a result, patients with complex conditions may need to be transferred to larger hospitals or travel long distances to access specialist expertise.
CHIL’s AI-powered e-Ward Round capability is designed to help address this gap by supporting the frontline healthcare team before, during, and after a remote specialist ward round. The AI layer can help organise patient information, support clinical documentation, highlight relevant clinical information, and structure the ward-round workflow, while specialist doctors provide clinical oversight and decision-making remotely.
Healthcare workers can present admitted patients to specialists, share clinical observations and investigations, discuss treatment plans, and receive specialist guidance in real time. The patient therefore remains at the bedside while the specialist becomes part of the care team remotely.
“An admitted patient should not have to leave their community simply because the specialist they need is in another city. We are adding AI-powered ward rounds to our existing platform so that the frontline healthcare worker can have both intelligent digital support and access to specialist expertise at the point of care.”
— Dr. Shamim Nabuuma, Co-Founder and CEO, CHIL Group
An extension of CHIL’s existing platform
The e-Ward Round capability is not a separate application but an additional layer within CHIL Group’s existing digital healthcare platform. This allows healthcare facilities already using CHIL’s platform to extend their use of the system from outpatient and consultation workflows into inpatient care.
The expansion creates a more continuous digital healthcare journey, from the initial assessment of a patient to specialist consultation, hospital admission, ward-based monitoring, diagnostics, treatment coordination, referral, and follow-up.
Designed around the admitted patient
The new capability is specifically designed for patients already admitted to hospital. During a digital ward round, frontline healthcare workers can use the platform to present patients to remote specialists and provide the information required for clinical review. AI-supported workflows can assist with organising patient records and clinical information, while the remote specialist can interact with the healthcare team and contribute to the patient’s management.
This model is particularly relevant to rural and peri-urban hospitals where specialist doctors may not be permanently stationed. Rather than requiring every hospital to have every specialist physically present, CHIL’s model enables specialists to support multiple healthcare facilities remotely.
Connecting the entire care journey
The e-Ward Round capability builds on CHIL Group’s broader vision of creating a connected digital healthcare infrastructure for underserved communities. The company’s platform connects frontline healthcare workers with remote medical specialists and can support other parts of the care pathway, including diagnostic services, prescriptions, pharmaceutical fulfilment, referrals, and follow-up. This means the digital ward round can become part of a patient’s broader care journey rather than functioning as an isolated video consultation.
Where a specialist recommends additional laboratory investigations, for example, the healthcare team can coordinate the required diagnostics. Where medication is required, prescription and fulfilment workflows can be supported through the platform. If a patient requires a higher level of care, referral can be initiated and documented as part of the same digital workflow.
Addressing Africa’s specialist shortage
Specialist healthcare services in Africa remain concentrated disproportionately in major urban centres, leaving many rural and peri-urban communities dependent on frontline healthcare workers who may have limited access to specialist support. CHIL Group believes digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence can help make specialist expertise more accessible without requiring patients to immediately travel to urban referral centres.
“Our vision is not to replace the doctor or the nurse. It is to give the healthcare worker at the patient’s bedside better tools and direct access to the expertise they need. AI helps organise and support the workflow, while the specialist remains responsible for specialist clinical input.”
— Dr. Shamim Nabuuma, Co-Founder and CEO, CHIL Group
Building connected healthcare in Africa
The addition of AI-powered e-Ward Rounds represents CHIL Group’s continued evolution from a telemedicine platform into a broader digital healthcare infrastructure connecting patients, frontline healthcare workers, specialists, and healthcare services. The company is focused on expanding its digital health solutions across Africa, particularly in communities where geographical distance, specialist shortages, and limited healthcare infrastructure continue to affect access to quality care.
With the e-Ward Round capability, CHIL Group is bringing another critical part of healthcare — the hospital ward and the admitted patient — into the connected digital care ecosystem.
About CHIL AI Lab
CHIL AI Lab operates a digital healthcare platform connecting frontline healthcare workers with remote medical specialists across Africa. The platform unifies clinical workflows, telemedicine consultations, diagnostics, pharmacy fulfilment, and care coordination, and now includes an AI-powered e-Ward Round capability for admitted patients at rural and underserved hospitals. CHIL Group’s mission is to make specialist healthcare expertise more accessible in communities affected by geographical distance, specialist shortages, and limited healthcare infrastructure. More information is available at ketiai.com.
Media Contact:
kallen Ann
CHIL AI LAB
info@ketiai.tech
