Midwife

Installing the app and registering

Installing Bokono on an Android phone

1. Open Chrome and go to bokono-rdc.net/en/download.
2. Tap Download for Android and wait for the download to finish (about 50 MB).
3. Open the downloaded file. If Android asks, tap Settings → Allow from this source, go back, then tap Install.
4. Open Bokono. Choose the language at the bottom of the screen (Français or English), then tap Get started.

On "Who are you?", tap Midwife.

The 5 steps of professional registration

1. Personal information: professional photo (optional), surname, middle name (post-nom), first name, date of birth, sex, nationality, phone.
2. Profession and training: the items specific to your profession (detailed below) and your education: Add my education → country (DRC by default) → university or institute (search by name or acronym) → faculty → programme → diploma → year → diploma number. Your institution is not in the list? Choose My institution or training is not listed and type its name: it will be checked, and you can carry on.
3. Practice: Facility you belong to (required): Choose my facility, type at least 2 letters of its name. Not in the list? Other — my facility is not listed: name, city, type; this declaration will be checked. Also give the start of your professional practice (exact date or year only, not the diploma date), practice area, role, days and hours, languages spoken.
4. Documents: ID document (front and back) and the professional documents requested (diploma, council registration…), photographed in full and legible. Documents are encrypted and seen only by the verification team.
5. Account: email address, password (at least 10 characters), acceptance of the terms of use. Tap Create an account.

Specific to midwives ("Profession and training" step): your education is required; the registration number is optional if none exists yet for your situation.

Midwife form

Rest of the form

Signing in and protecting the app

Once your account has been created, you sign in with your email address and password. After that, a 6-digit code (or your fingerprint) is enough to reopen Bokono.

1. On the Sign in screen, enter your email address and password, then tap Sign in. The eye icon on the right shows or hides the password.
2. "Protect your app": type a 6-digit code, then type it a second time to confirm it. If your phone has a fingerprint reader, turn on Also unlock with my fingerprint.
3. Right after that, Bokono asks for access to the microphone (calls and teleconsultations), location (emergencies) and full-screen calls (answering even when the phone is locked). Tap Continue and accept.
4. Each time you open the app, or after one minute away from it, place your finger or type your code. After 5 wrong codes, Bokono signs you out for security: sign in again with your password.

Sign in

Protection code

File review and professional profile

After the account is created, your file is automatically sent for review. Until it is approved, the app only opens your file, help and notifications.

Following the review (Profile → My professional file)

1. The file status is shown at the top: pending, corrections requested or approved.
2. If an agent requests a correction, the reason is shown: correct it, add the missing document, then tap Send for verification.
3. Your registration number is checked with the professional council or competent authority before any activation. You are notified of every decision.

My professional profile (My professional file → Specialties, education, facilities and experience)

This is what patients see when they look for you. It never shows your home address.

• Bokono ID (e.g. BKP-000001): a number internal to the platform, assigned automatically. It is not a number issued by a professional council; your official registration number is shown below it, with its status (verified or pending).
• Experience: tap Exact date or choose the year you started practising. The app calculates your years of experience; with the year only, it says "estimate". A future date is refused.
• Facilities: the facility you belong to (required), marked Main, and any secondary facilities. A facility declared as "Other" remains to be verified until it is linked.
• Education: each course stays marked "Declared by you (not verified)" until the copy of the diploma is checked, then "Diploma verified by Bokono".
• Tap Save after each change.

My professional file

My professional profile

Rest of the profile

Joining a facility with a code: if a hospital or clinic has declared you as staff, it gives you a link code. Enter it in Profile → My facility declarations to confirm the link.

Turning on two-factor authentication (required for professional actions)

Your professional actions — opening a record, prescribing, dispensing, validating, activating a membership… — require a second authentication factor. Until it is turned on, the professional space shows "Second factor required".

1. Install an authenticator app on your phone (an app that shows 6-digit codes renewed every 30 seconds).
2. In Bokono, open Profile → Account security (two-factor authentication).
3. Scan the code shown with the authenticator app (or enter the key shown below the code).
4. Enter the 6-digit code shown by the authenticator app, then tap Verify.

Bokono will then ask for this code when needed. The second factor can be turned on at any time, even before your file is approved. It is personal: one second factor per person.

The midwife's home screen

Top of the home screen

Rest of the home screen

Bottom bar: Home, Appointments, Messages, Profile.

Pregnancy follow-up

Women followed (home → Women followed): the patients who chose you or whom your facility entrusted to you. Tap a patient to open her page, then Pregnancy.

Women followed

Worklist

Opening a pregnancy record

1. Tap Open a pregnancy record.
2. Enter the date of the last period and the method that sets the expected due date (last period, ultrasound, clinical examination or another method).
3. Record gravidity, parity, obstetric history and documented risk factors. Tap Open.

The summary shows the term, the due date, risk factors, missing information and alerts (no prenatal visit, next visit date passed…).

Prenatal visit: weight, blood pressure, fundal height, fetal heart sounds, fetal movements, oedema, proteinuria, mother's complaints, observations, tests requested, treatments and the date of the next visit. Tap Save.

Labour monitoring: maternal vital signs, dilatation, contractions, fetal heart rate, membranes and fluid, interventions and decisions, with the time of each event.

Delivery: date and time, mode (vaginal, instrumental vaginal, caesarean, other), mother's condition, and for each newborn: sex, birth weight and observations. Each newborn gets their own record, linked to the mother. Delivery data feeds the child's Birth record, which parents cannot change.

Postnatal visit: mother's vital signs, newborn observations (temperature, weight, rates), feeding (exclusive breastfeeding, mixed, formula), advice given, warning signs explained and the next check-up.

Readings, alerts and monitoring (patient's page)

• Readings: each value shows its source: medical device, consumer device, entered by a professional, entered by the patient, phone sensor (estimate) or imported data. A Smart Health estimate (camera pulse, movement tests) is never presented as a validated medical measurement; it carries its method and signal quality.
• Alerts: the top card shows "Normal" or the open alerts, by level Watch, Alert or Critical, with the source of the threshold. Thresholds are set by the Bokono medical team, following validated protocols, and adapted to age (newborn, infant, child, adolescent, adult); an alert is an indication, not a diagnosis.
• Birth (children): gestational age, measurements, Apgar and corrected age for a child born preterm. A professional can complete or correct this record; the parent cannot change what a professional entered.
• Missed readings: reminders sent to the patient or their parents over 14 days, and their delivery.
• Growth (WHO): weight, height, head circumference and BMI-for-age charts, with z-score and percentile calculated using the WHO method; PDF report. Interpretation remains yours.
• Vaccination: individual schedule (done, due, overdue, catch-up), recording a vaccination, a deferral or a contraindication, PDF vaccination record. Dates follow the schedule validated by the Bokono medical team; you decide on each vaccination.

Monitoring plan (patient's page → Monitoring plan, for professionals who prescribe)

1. Choose a template (hypertension, diabetes, weight follow-up, pregnancy, paediatric follow-up, after hospital stay…) or build the plan: parameters and expected frequency (per day or per week), instructions for the patient.
2. If needed, set check times (e.g. 08:00, 20:00).
3. Reminders for missed readings: tolerance, number of reminders and interval, recipients (the patient, parents or guardians) and escalation after a number of missed slots, to you only or to the whole care team. Never more reminders than the number set.
4. Tap Save the plan. The patient sees the plan and its progress in Readings.
5. Monitoring report: a report of the last 30 days is saved in the record.

Schedule, teleconsultation and messages

My schedule (home → Schedule)

1. An appointment request arrives with the status "Requested" and a notification. Accept, Decline (with the reason) or Suggest another date: choose the day, time, mode (video, audio or in person) and the reason; the patient is notified and accepts or declines.
2. The patient confirms; the appointment becomes "Confirmed" and access to the record opens for the consultation (the patient can revoke it).
3. After the consultation, mark it as completed or record a no-show. Today's appointments also appear on the home screen, under Today.

My schedule

Teleconsultation

1. Open the confirmed audio or video appointment (from Today, the schedule or the Teleconsultation tile).
2. Accept transcription of the consultation? Tap Yes or No. Transcription writes the conversation as text to help write the report; no audio or image is kept. It only takes place if both parties answer Yes ("Transcription accepted by both"); otherwise the consultation goes ahead without transcription.
3. Tap Start the consultation: the call starts (the patient taps Join the consultation). During the call, transcription can be paused and resumed.
4. Tap End the consultation and confirm: the call and transcription stop, then the consultation report opens. The transcript is the starting point; the assistant can propose a draft from de-identified data, which you review and correct. Once signed, the report goes into the patient's record (Consultations and reports section).
5. The raw transcript remains available read-only (Read the full text), for the patient and for you.

Messages and calls: Bokono Connect

Messages

1. Tap Messages in the bottom bar (or the Connect tile on the home screen). Conversations are listed with the most recent at the top, messages grouped by day; the All and Unread filters and the search bar help you find an exchange.
2. New conversation: search for a registered person or organisation by name, profession or Bokono ID.
3. The name and photo of the person you are talking to appear at the top of the conversation. You can send text, photo, document or voice message. Without a network, the message waits on the phone and is sent automatically when the network returns; it is never shown as "sent" before then.
4. To call, tap the phone icon (audio) or the camera icon (video). The screen shows "ringing", "busy" or "unreachable". An incoming call rings even when the phone is locked: tap Answer in the notification. The call opens directly, with no intermediate screen and no Bokono code; the code is asked again after the call. No other window opens during a call. Calls are never recorded.
5. The Available switch at the top of the Messages screen tells others whether you can be called right now (green or red dot).

Tasks, activity and transport

Tasks & alerts (home → Tasks & alerts)

Tasks & alerts

• To do, Created and Alerts tabs.
• New task: title, details, category (care, medication, vital signs, monitoring, follow-up, laboratory, transport, administrative…), priority (urgent, priority, routine) and its basis, due date, then Assign to yourself, a colleague or a department. Tap Create task.
• A task moves from Planned to Ongoing (Start), then Done or Not done (reason required). An overdue task is flagged "OVERDUE" and raises an alert.
• An alert (reading, treatment, critical result, clinical rule) explains Why it was raised; tap Acknowledge, then Open record if needed.

Reports & statistics (home → Reports & statistics)

1. Choose the period: Today, Yesterday, This week or another period offered.
2. To do shows the current state of what is waiting for action; the i explains each figure.
3. Write the summary: the assistant writes a summary from the figures calculated by Bokono, without adding any; you review it.
4. The PDF icon exports the report. The figures only count what is recorded in Bokono.

Activity report

Reading a medical card (home → Read a card): scan the QR code the patient shows you (or enter the code). It is valid for 15 minutes and each reading is recorded in the patient's history, which the patient can see.

Case conferences (home → Case conferences): bring colleagues together around a case. Tap New conference, invite professionals, exchange messages and meet by video. With no patient selected, present the case without identity; with a patient, their consent is requested.

Medical transport (home → Transport)

To have a patient transported by an ambulance service registered on Bokono:

Medical transport

1. Tap Transport request.
2. Choose the ambulance service, enter the pick-up location, the destination (facility), the reason and the priority according to the local protocol (immediate, urgent or scheduled). Add the information available about the patient.
3. Tap Send request. Then follow the status: Request received, Awaiting regulation, Assigned, Crew en route, On scene, Patient on board, In transport, Handed over, Completed.

Notifications, subscription and help

Notifications (bell at the top of the home screen)

• The list shows your notifications, most recent first; tap one to open the screen it concerns. Mark all as read clears the red counter.
• Show message text in notifications: when off, the notification only says "New message from …"; when on, anyone who sees your phone can read the text.
• If notifications are blocked on the phone, a banner says so: allow them in the Android settings.
• Required permissions: as soon as you sign in, Bokono requires running in the background. The "Required permissions" screen lists what to turn on: notifications, running in the background (tap "Allow"), auto-start on some phones (Tecno, Infinix, itel, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei…), background data, full-screen calls, microphone and camera, location. Tap Turn everything on, then Turn on on each remaining line: the app opens as soon as everything is on. The Emergency button stays available. If a permission is removed later, the screen comes back. Calls then ring and can be answered directly, even when Bokono is closed or the phone is locked, with no code or fingerprint during the call.

Paying the subscription by mobile money

Payment is made directly in the app, by mobile money. It is only requested once the account has been approved.

1. Tap the Activate my subscription card on the home screen (or Payments, or Profile → Subscription and receipts).
2. Under Plans, tap Pay next to the plan that matches your account; the monthly price is shown.
3. Enter your mobile money number in international format (e.g. +243 81 234 5678), then tap Pay by mobile money.
4. Approve the payment on your phone (message from your operator and your mobile money PIN).
5. Return to Bokono and tap Check payment. Once the payment is confirmed, the subscription is active and your receipt appears in My receipts.

My balance and Makuta dossier

Patients' payments for your services go through Makuta, Bokono's payment provider.

1. Tap My balance: it is the first tile of your professional tools (or the Balance button at the top of the professional space).
2. Available balance: the amounts received for you and not yet paid out. Below: the Total received and the list of Transactions (payment received, payout), with their status: received, pending, payout prepared, paid out, refunded…
3. The icon at the top right opens My payments and Makuta dossier. This dossier is created automatically when you sign up, from the documents already provided to Bokono. The screen shows money received, payouts, the dossier status (in preparation, under review, sent to Makuta, payment extension active, to be completed) and the status of each document (being verified by Bokono, verified by Bokono then by Makuta, correction requested, rejected — to be replaced).
4. The To provide list shows missing documents. A rejected document or one needing correction is replaced in your professional application file: it is picked up automatically and goes back for review.

My balance

Profile

Help and support (Profile → Help and support)

The Frequently asked questions cover common situations. For anything else, tap Contact Bokono support, choose the subject (My account, Payment, Technical issue, Other question) and describe your request: the answer arrives in Bokono Connect. You can also write to support@bokono-rdc.net or call +243 850 655 988.

Frequently asked questions