Link
A clinical decision system for Ethiopian hospitals and health centres. Link consolidates paper records and patchwork software into one integrated workbench — from registration through consultation, pharmacy, laboratory, and reporting.
The clinical problem
Ethiopian health facilities operate with fragmented information. Patient records live in paper files and handwritten notes. Lab results arrive on slips. Pharmacy orders are written by hand. Some facilities have basic software for registration or billing, but it doesn't talk to the paper-based clinic, the lab, or anything else. Clinicians spend time on documentation and chasing information instead of on decisions.
CDSS (clinical decision support) technology exists in other contexts — algorithms for diagnosis, workup protocols, treatment pathways. But most systems assume reliable internet, a standardised workflow, and training on systems developed for other health systems. Ethiopian facilities use CBHI (Community-Based Health Insurance), offline capacity matters, and clinicians work with Ministry-aligned primary care guidelines, not generic protocols.
The gap: clinicians know what good practice looks like. They lack integrated information at the moment of decision and tools that respect the context they actually work in.
What Link is
15 modules — registration, triage, consultation, lab, pharmacy, imaging, inpatient, billing, inventory, admin, patient portal, HEW portal, dashboards, DHIS2 integration, and a CDSS engine. One patient record. Built around Ethiopian clinical pathways and 200+ primary care algorithms aligned to Ministry guidelines.
15 modules, one patient record
Link is an integrated clinical platform. Each module works on its own; together they form a complete facility information system.
Consultation & CDSS
200+ primary care algorithms aligned to Ministry clinical pathways.
Triage
Structured triage with prioritisation at reception.
Laboratory
Test orders, results, quality flags — fully traceable.
Pharmacy
Dispensing, stock, drug interactions, CBHI-aware billing.
Imaging
Radiology orders and result routing, DICOM-ready.
Billing & CBHI
Chapa payment gateway and Community-Based Health Insurance integration.
Inpatient
Ward management, rounds, handovers, discharge summaries.
Registration
National ID-aware patient registration with household linkage.
Patient & HEW portals
Mobile access for patients and health extension workers.
Plus Inventory, Admin, Dashboards, DHIS2 integration, CDSS Engine, and Link Hub on-premise runtime.
Where the clinic actually is
Ethiopian facilities don't always have reliable internet. They serve patients in English, Amharic, and Afaan Oromo. They report into DHIS2 every month. Link was designed around these realities, not despite them.
Offline-capable
Link Hub runs on-premise via Docker. Facilities keep working during outages and sync when the link returns.
Multilingual
Full UI in English, Amharic, and Afaan Oromo. Patient-facing materials localised.
Row-level security
Multi-tenant with strict facility-level data isolation. Each hospital sees only its own data.
DHIS2 ready
Automated report generation into national DHIS2 pipelines. No month-end spreadsheets.
The clinical decision layer
Link includes a CDSS engine with 200+ algorithms for primary care conditions. These algorithms are evidence-based and aligned to Ministry of Health clinical pathways. When a clinician logs a patient's chief complaint, vitals, and examination findings, Link surfaces suggested diagnostic workups and treatment protocols. The clinician retains full authority over the decision — algorithms suggest, humans decide.
- 1.Clinician enters chief complaint and examination findings
- 2.CDSS engine matches against primary care algorithms
- 3.Suggested workups and protocols appear (aligned to regional epidemiology)
- 4.Clinician reviews, modifies, or overrides — the system follows their decision
The intent: a junior clinician sees a patient with respiratory symptoms, and Link surfaces the pneumonia, TB, and asthma pathways worth considering based on what's been entered. It isn't telling them what to do — it's asking "have you thought about this?" That matters most where the next specialist is 200km away.
Link is in pilot testing. Clinician feedback will be published here, with consent, as pilots conclude.
How the clinical content is governed
A suggestion engine in a consultation room carries real responsibility. Link's clinical content is sourced, reviewed, and validated under an explicit governance process — not shipped like ordinary software.
Algorithms are built from Ethiopian primary health care protocols and Standard Treatment Guidelines, with drug formulary integration. Every rule keeps a traceable link to its guideline source and version.
Every change that touches a clinical surface passes a dedicated clinical review in addition to engineering review — both must approve before anything ships. Safety-critical alerts and hard stops get formal hazard analysis.
The system suggests; the clinician decides. Every CDSS action requires explicit clinician confirmation, every override is respected and recorded, and AI advisory features operate inside governed boundaries with patient data protected under Ethiopia's data protection law (Proclamation 1321/2024).
Pilot facilities test whether algorithms match clinician expectations before general availability, and a formal research validation programme — with de-identified data and staged evaluation — measures whether decision support actually improves care.
What the system learns — and how.
In clinical software, learning can't mean an algorithm silently rewriting itself. Link's loop runs through people.
Every CDSS suggestion — accepted, modified, or overridden — is captured in audit and evaluation logs. The clinician's actual decision is the data, not just the system's suggestion.
A protocol that clinicians keep modifying is a signal. Flagged patterns route back into the clinical governance process, where guideline experts revise the rule — reviewed and versioned, never auto-updated.
The research validation programme evaluates de-identified decision-support data in staged waves, measuring whether suggestions actually improve care. Findings feed algorithm refinement as pilots conclude.
On the roadmap: expanding the CDSS from 200+ to 500+ conditions, with refinements driven by pilot outcomes and validation evidence rather than assumption.
Technology
Link is built on a modern, proven stack that scales from single facilities to regional networks:
Status and rollout
Feature-complete (March 2026): All 15 modules are built and tested internally. The CDSS engine is functional with 200+ primary care algorithms.
In testing now: Early hospitals and health centres are beginning pilots. We're validating workflows, confirming that algorithms match clinician expectations, and testing offline sync.
Initial outreach: Awareness meetings are underway with potential customers (hospital networks, regional health bureaus, MoH programs).
General availability target: Q3 2026. We're not setting a hard date; we'll move into general availability when testing feedback is incorporated and we're confident in the product.
Evidence
Link is in active testing. Current metrics:
In-production metrics (completeness rates, clinical outcomes, user adoption) will be published as testing concludes and customer deployments begin.