CARE Bridge logoCARE Bridge
Trusted by clinics across Kenya

Connecting Health, Saving Lives.

CARE Bridge is a non profit SMS based hypertension management platform that reaches elderly patients on basic feature phones; and gives clinicians a powerful dashboard to prevent strokes and heart attacks before they happen.

1.3B
adults with hypertension
46%
undiagnosed in SSA
<10%
control rate
carebridge.health/dashboard
50
Patients
7
Active alerts
84%
Adherence
Critical alerts
2 new
  • Mama Esther Otieno192/121
  • Mzee Joseph Kamau178/108
  • Mama Phoebe AchiengMissed 2 doses
Incoming SMSjust now
+254 740 ******
138/89
Recorded 138/89. Stay well, Mama Ruth!
Our mission

To bridge the gap between rural patients and modern healthcare; one SMS at a time.

CareBridge is a Kenyan non-profit health initiative. We build the tools that let community clinics reach elderly and rural patients living with hypertension; the ones smartphone apps forget; so that a preventable stroke never happens for lack of a phone call.

Our story

Why we built CareBridge

A note from the founder.

I trained and worked in Kenyan clinics where hypertension was the quiet emergency behind almost every stroke ward admission. Most of the patients we lost were not lost to a lack of medicine; they were lost to a lack of follow-up. An elderly woman in Laikipia would miss a refill for two weeks before anyone noticed. A grandfather in Bungoma would send his BP reading verbally through a neighbour, and it would never reach the clinic file.

Every digital health tool I saw assumed a smartphone, a data plan, and a young patient. The people who needed help most had none of those things. What they did have was a basic feature phone and SMS.

CareBridge started as a weekend script to send medication reminders over SMS to twelve patients at a single clinic. Today it is a national platform used by community clinics across Kenya to monitor hypertension, catch dangerous BP readings in real time, and coordinate care between nurses, CHWs, and doctors; without ever asking the patient to install anything.

We are a non-profit because this problem is too important to gate behind a subscription. If you believe rural Kenyans deserve the same standard of chronic-care follow-up as anyone in Nairobi or New York, stand with us.

The problem

Hypertension is the silent killer of Sub-Saharan Africa

Most patients are elderly, in rural areas, without smartphones; and slip through the cracks of overburdened clinics.

Disconnected patients

Elderly patients on basic feature phones have no way to share BP readings or report missed doses.

Overburdened clinicians

Rural clinics see hundreds of patients per nurse with no real-time visibility into who needs help today.

Preventable emergencies

Strokes and heart attacks happen weekly that could have been caught with a single timely intervention.

The solution

A bridge built for the phones people already own

No app to install. No data plan required. Just SMS; the universal language of mobile in Africa.

01

Patients text in

Reply to a reminder with their BP reading (e.g. 138/89), or TAKEN, HELP, or REFILL.

02

We classify risk instantly

Readings are parsed, stored, and triaged using clinical thresholds in real time.

03

Clinicians get alerted

High and emergency BP readings trigger immediate, prioritized alerts in the dashboard.

04

Care gets delivered

Clinicians follow up, adjust meds, and dispatch CHWs; closing the loop before crisis hits.

CARE Bridge SMS
CARE
Habari Mama Ruth! Time for your morning medicine. Reply TAKEN when done.
TAKEN
CARE
Asante sana! Adherence recorded ✓
CARE
Please send today's BP reading as systolic/diastolic.
138/89
CARE
Recorded 138/89. Slightly elevated. A nurse may call you today.
How it works

Three minutes to your first saved life

A simple closed loop: reminder, response, risk classification, response.

STEP 01

Patient enrols

A community health worker registers the patient in seconds; name, phone, meds, clinic.

STEP 02

Daily SMS reminder

Each morning, the patient gets a reminder to take their medicine and send today's BP.

STEP 03

Reading parsed & classified

Their reply (e.g. 138/89) is parsed, stored, and color-coded by risk.

STEP 04

Clinician notified

High or emergency readings open an alert in the dashboard with one-tap actions.

STEP 05

Care delivered

Clinician calls, adjusts meds, or sends a CHW. Outcome logged. Loop closed.

Features

Everything a clinic needs to manage hypertension at scale

SMS-first workflow

Two-way SMS reminders, BP intake, adherence confirmation, refill requests, and emergency help.

Risk-tiered dashboards

Patients automatically classified Normal, Elevated, High, or Emergency with color-coded alerts.

Real-time alerts

Emergency BP triggers instant clinician notification with audit trail of every action taken.

Role-based security

Admin, clinician, nurse, and CHW roles with HIPAA-style audit logs and privacy-safe SMS.

Multi-clinic management

Run a network of clinics from one platform with per-clinic analytics and clinician assignments.

Adherence intelligence

Track which patients are missing doses and intervene before the BP curve climbs.

Impact

Built for outcomes that move the needle

3x
more BP readings per patient vs. clinic visits alone
65%
reduction in missed medication doses
48h
faster intervention on high-risk readings
$0.02
average cost per SMS interaction
Target communities

Designed for rural and peri-urban Africa

Kibera & Mathare
Nairobi informal settlements
Kakamega
Western rural
Kisumu
Lakeside
Garissa
Northeastern arid
Support CareBridge

Help us reach the next 10,000 patients.

CareBridge is a non-profit. Every shilling goes directly to SMS credits, clinic onboarding, and CHW training in underserved counties. You can support us by donating, partnering with your organisation, or volunteering your clinical or engineering time.

  • KES 500 covers a year of BP-monitoring SMS for one patient.
  • Partner clinics onboard at no cost.
  • Volunteer as a nurse mentor, translator, or developer.
Voices

What patients are saying

"

Before learning about Care Bridge, I was taking medication but not paying much attention to it. Care Bridge set me up to be reminded every day, and I have also been taking the right medication. I am very grateful for Care Bridge.

Patrick N.
Patient · Nyahururu, Kenya
"

I've developed the habit of taking my medication consistently. Whenever my phone rings with a Care Bridge reminder, I know it's time to take my medicine. As a result, my blood pressure has improved a lot.

Mary K.
Patient · Nyahururu, Kenya
Questions

Frequently asked

Get in touch

Request a pilot or demo

Tell us about your clinic network and we'll get back within 48 hours.

Office
Nairobi, Kenya

Data Privacy & Compliance Notice: CARE Bridge is committed to protecting patient privacy. All health records, SMS communications, and clinician logs are handled in strict compliance with the Kenyan Data Protection Act managed by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), utilizing role-based access security controls.

Ready to save lives at scale?

Join clinics across Kenya already using CARE Bridge to reach the patients they were losing.