DOCTOR on CALL (literally)
Dr Erin Jones isn’t your regular medical doctor. The 33-year-old founder of The Health Hopper, an innovative medical startup that merges old methods with new technology, is part of a new breed of ‘doctorpreneurs’ changing the way in which medical care is administered.
After graduating from Stellenbosch University in 2012, Erin started her medical career at Pietermaritzburg Complex. It was working in a rural town, she says, that shaped her into the kind of doctor she wanted to be. ‘I saw rural KwaZulu-Natal and the plight of the people there. After that, I did my community service at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria, eventually moving on to emergency medicine, which I loved so much I did my diploma in primary emergency care. When I moved into private work in Sandton in 2016, I noticed that patients there really wanted a type of personalised care – and that was quite refreshing, coming from a state hospital. All these things affected what I finally did.’
After doing several locums and gaining experience in different
