When The Doctor Will Not Take Heed To You, MyDébboApp Bets It Can 

She requested me to current her a symptom, one factor irregular and precise. I mentioned a small problem that had lingered longer than it should have, one which I had been which implies to check out. I watched because the bogus intelligence (AI) triage instrument bubbled to life as she typed my symptom into the chat subject, the best way during which I’d variety it in a Google search bar.

A message popped up, after which one different. That they had been follow-up questions, each one narrowed down the difficulty, like a doctor making an attempt to understand what was really happening. It requested questions on when the symptom started, how prolonged it had lasted, whether or not or not it had unfold, and the best way so much it was happening. Inside seconds of analysis, the system generated a summary of doable causes, outlined its reasoning behind each choice, actually helpful the kind of specialist that matched the conditions, and beneficial what to do subsequent by providing a list of specialists I could information a session with.

I hadn’t left my seat to be in a prepared room or fill out paper sorts. After a few temporary minutes, I had right and clear language to talk to a doctor about my indicators. 

The instrument I had merely examined is part of a model new women’s nicely being platform generally known as Débbo Africa, a startup based mostly by two Nigerian docs, Dr. Zara Modibbo and Dr. Aisha Wanka. Their idea is to close the gender nicely being gap by making care additional accessible and easy to navigate for African women.

Ladies have normally described the feeling of being dismissed by medical professionals, speaking nonetheless not pretty being heard. Complaints abound about being dismissed or rushed through appointments, notably if ache or indicators are normally not immediately seen. Nevertheless Dr. Zara Modibbo components out that silence isn’t always as a consequence of neglect. “One among many the reason why numerous women actually really feel unheard is on account of our nicely being strategies are stretched. They’re underfunded, and there are normally not that many medical specialists as correctly.”

For the earlier three years, Débbo Africa has operated as a women-centred healthcare platform, connecting prospects to digital consultations, diagnostic checks, radiology scans, peer assist, and medical specialists all through fully completely different fields. Nevertheless its subsequent large step is the app I was confirmed, MyDébboApp, a digital extension of that platform that makes use of AI to triage indicators and knowledge prospects to the suitable care.

Débbo Africa’s broader work targets high-burden conditions that disproportionately affect African women, along with fibroids, menopause-related issues, and cervical most cancers. African women have the very best burden of uterine fibroids on the planet, occurring at prices 3–4 cases higher in them compared with their counterparts of various races. Cervical most cancers is the commonest clarification for dying amongst women in 21 of the 48 worldwide areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the many many 20 worldwide areas on the planet with the very best burden of cervical most cancers, 18 are inside the World Effectively being Organisation (WHO) African space. By starting with these areas, Débbo Africa is tackling among the many continent’s most neglected however widespread nicely being challenges, the place delays in prognosis and remedy carry life-altering penalties.

The app that listens

On the core of MyDébboApp is an AI triage instrument, Dr. Déb, that works very like a doctor’s preliminary analysis all through a bodily session. It asks structured follow-up questions on indicators typed inside the chat by prospects, and organises the info to help women articulate what they’re experiencing sooner than they even meet a clinician. The aim is to reduce the time it takes from when a difficulty is seen to getting expert help.

The world over, researchers have found that many AI devices offering nicely being data can produce misleading and even dangerous advice. A 2025 look at by the MIT Media Lab revealed that AI bots normally carry inaccuracies. People found low-accuracy AI-generated medical responses to be reliable, dependable, and satisfactory, and confirmed a extreme tendency to watch in all probability harmful medical advice and incorrectly search pointless medical consideration. 

Débbo Africa says Dr. Déb isn’t any guessing machine. Moderately than collaborating in doctor, the instrument listens to complaints, buildings them, and provides strategies which may be handed to professionals who may additionally assist. It helps prospects understand their indicators and set up which form of healthcare expert is also most relevant to hunt the recommendation of. “Every triage output is validated through human oversight, and all medical choices leisure with licensed clinicians,” Dr. Modibbo says.

Not like general-purpose AI chatbots, Dr. Déb was constructed with a human-in-the-loop technique, the place every layer of the instrument has been reviewed by docs and medical consultants all through the Débbo Africa workforce to ensure medical accuracy. For Débbo Africa’s founders, this automation is about effectivity: the earlier a girl can describe what’s unsuitable, the earlier she’s going to attain someone licensed to take care of it. ”This (Dr. Déb) isn’t an autonomous AI; that’s human-centred AI that’s designed to not change nicely being professionals and docs, nonetheless actually to help them,” Dr. Modibbo says.

Throughout the demo, I observed how the strategy reduces friction as a result of it eliminates guessing which specialist to see. The app builds a structured dialog, then matches prospects with obtainable specialists, numerous them women, for digital or bodily consultations. “Sometimes, many girls’s nicely being factors are pretty delicate, and usually women may need speaking to a female doctor. We’ve that operate constructed into our infrastructure,” Dr. Modibbo supplies.

Every session is logged. The notes and summaries docs make all through a session are hooked as much as the individual’s in-app medical report, which they’ll entry. Prospects may even add earlier medical knowledge to produce a historic previous of their conditions. The platform moreover contains a group operate, which is a moderated peer group the place women share experiences and culturally associated nicely being content material materials tailored to their conditions.

It costs between ₦3,000–₦5,000 ($2.05–$3.41) for a session with a standard medical officer and about ₦20,000–₦30,000 ($13.66–$20.49) to have a session with a specialist. The company will be adopting a freemium model, allowing women to utilize parts of the app, harking back to tutorial content material materials, group boards, and Dr. Déb, with out paying, to make step one in all care accessible to as many girls as doable. The workforce is iterating on strategies to make the app usable all through fully completely different literacy and digital comfort ranges. The current mannequin works primarily in English, nonetheless future iterations will embody native languages and culturally associated phrasing to make it easier for girls to clarify indicators the best way during which they naturally would.

Since its launch, Débbo Africa has facilitated over 1,000 diagnostic checks all through 10 Nigerian states and has partnered with over 100 medical specialists. The workforce plans to launch MyDébboApp publicly inside the first quarter of 2026, after final rounds of iteration and have updates. Together with consultations, they’re setting up integrations for pharmacy provide and personal nicely being information monitoring as part of wider efforts to make MyDébboApp a single entry stage for girls’s healthcare in Africa.

What struck me in all probability probably the most regarding the demo was how simple it was. Medical practitioners normally warn in direction of what they title the “Dr. Google syndrome,” that’s, the conduct of turning to search engines like google like google and yahoo for options that all the time scare prospects better than they clarify indicators. As someone who instinctively varieties every new symptom proper right into a search bar, it felt oddly reassuring to see one factor I could perception prepared on the alternative end.

What MyDébboApp really does is return a method of calm to that anxious second when one factor feels off and in addition you don’t however know why. Which can be its vitality, giving women options that they’ll perception from a system that lastly feels choose it’s listening.