Afya Msaada: Your Urgent Healthline

An app and USSD service that improves access to health technology in rural areas of Kenya and contribute to the SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.

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Inspiration

A lot of lives in the Kenyan rural areas are lost due to a lack of efficient emergency systems, especially medical emergencies. Due to poverty, rural area residents cannot rush to hospitals in emergencies as quickly as they'd probably want to. Hospital people who handle emergency phone calls in rural areas don't do it anymore. This is also a problem in big cities. Doctors can though. Doctors can receive a call and hop onto an ambulance or car or motorbike and quickly reach these people in need. They can immediately respond to these distress calls. Our solution tries to solve this response time and hopefully save countless lives in the process and contribute to SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.

Problem Statement

Residents in rural areas lose countless life due to a lack of immediate medical attention during emergencies. Poverty affects most of them and with this comes the lack of transportation means to reach hospitals in time. This situation has caused many lives to be lost in rural areas and there is no concrete solution to try to solve this at the moment in Kenya.

Target and Solution

Our product is primarily targeting rural area individuals. The solution is to build two systems, one system is the doctor's portal and the other system is a USSD service. The doctor's portal is where doctors get to register and submit their contact information that can be used to reach them as immediately as possible and the USSD service is for emergency situations where the user gets to immediately be in contact with a doctor. Note: When using this USSD service, the users won't be facing any discrimination to access their healthcare service and the same applies to registered doctors on the app.

This project aims to not only improve access to health technology in rural areas of Kenya but create social inclusivity between patients and doctors of the country despite some social and financial gaps between them.

How to use the application?

USSD SERVICE We chose a USSD service because most of the people in rural areas have feature phones and with a USSD service, you do not need internet to run it. The following are the steps of how to use it:

  1. User dials the USSD service number
  2. They are prompted to input their current location
  3. The system fetches and displays all doctors available in that location and the user picks one
  4. The service makes an automatic call to that chosen doctor and the doctor can rush to them after a short call with them to get more specific location details or do a remote consultation with them.

DOCTOR'S PORTAL This is where the doctor's register into our system and provide contact information and their current locations. The portal also gives summaries specific to that doctor (e.g., patient details, appointments and much more.

How we built it?

USSD SERVICE The service will be built using Node and Express to handle servers and Africa'sTalking USSD API to get the whole system up and running DOCTOR'S PORTAL

  • React is used for front end and UI interactions
  • Node and Express handle the servers
  • Postgres handles data storage

Note: Vs code has been used to write the code and Github to host the code.

Rural people's benefits of using the USSD Code *544# and service:

  • It is quick and simple to remember.
  • It doesn't require them to have an internet connection.
  • It works on all mobile devices i.e keypad phone, smartphones, tablets and feature phone
  • They aren't required to download and install any application on their phone to use this service.
  • The service is secured, user-friendly and fast to access urgent healthcare on their mobile even when they are on the move.
  • This service does not discriminate against the users based on their gender, sex, age, ethnicity, social group or appearance to provide them with healthcare and doctor's access.

How the product will be available to the public and market?

Both the portal and USSD service will be hosted online and anyone can be able to access the services. All one needs to do is get a mobile device, dial the code *544# to access the doctors' list which doesn't require the internet. The doctors will be able to access their portal online as well. All these access and services will be of free cost.

Challenges we ran into

So far, we have experienced little to no challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Coming with the name "AFYA MSAADA" which has a Swahili meaning for the rural people speaking the language to understand the name of the service. "AFYA" means "health" and "MSAADA" means "aid" in the Swahili language.
  • Getting the MVP to work.
  • Working on this new telemedical concept for the people of Kenya as it's something new in the country (Kenya does not have such service yet for healthcare services)

What we learned

There is are a lot of people suffering in rural areas and we can do something about it. This is the perfect opportunity to do so. Also, one teammate can have technical skills and the other one can have no technical background and still team up and work together.

What's next for Afya Msaada: Your Urgent Healthline

  • Build the USSD service and get it up and running.
  • Finish building the portal and get to run as well.
  • Improve the efficiency of both apps and get as many doctors and users into the application.
  • Get sponsorship by programs such as Microsoft for Social Impact and partnership with local and international health organizations.
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