Higala - Draft

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Problem Statement

How might we help people living with or without Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) live in the new normal?

Challenge Area

The difficulty in accessing medical services due to the pandemic, especially to those who are living with or without HIV.

Our Inspiration

HIV has always been a sensitive topic in the Philippines. Most people are afraid to talk to experts or are not well-informed about where they could get tested or consult with a counselor. The new normal magnifies the difficulty of availing these services due to the lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health. We want to help out the people affected by this.

Target Users/Audience

People living with or without HIV.

Our Proposed Solution

Higala (a Cebuano word literally meaning friend) is an online platform that seeks to connect both practitioners and people who are living with or without HIV.

Higala offers:

• Quick assessments for people who are living with or without HIV through digital triages.
• Modern ways of delivering at-home or in-clinic HIV tests and treatments.
• Easy access to online consultations and counseling.
• Relevant information on healthcare centers and news directly from the healthcare providers.
• Digitized medical data.
• Tracking insurance for covered HIV cases.

Higala aims to help people who do not feel comfortable opening about sensitive health issues by offering health services accessible at the end of their fingertips.

Why is it relevant?

Living in the new normal constraints most of us. More so to those who are immunocompromised. Now, more than ever, people living with or without HIV need a platform that modernizes the way healthcare is provided to help ease their worries.

How did we build it?

We made a significant effort to ensure that concerns from both medical practitioners and people living with or without HIV are addressed. We built our platform around their needs.

Accomplishments we're proud of

We were able to get positive feedback from a local HIV testing center who was very optimistic about the project.

Challenges we encountered

Our biggest challenge was conceptualizing and designing a platform that the target audience would find trustworthy.

What did we learn?

The team learned that there are a lot of factors to be considered when working on medical-related platforms. This made us realize how big the platform would be covering but this also made us more eager to develop a useful and practical platform.

What technology did we use to build it?

We used Miro to help us map out our ideas for the platform. We prototyped the designs/screens using Figma.

What's next for Higala?

We are looking forward to starting the development of the platform and publishing it out to the community for feedback. We would need funding for the development and implementation.

We plan on tapping healthcare providers first as they have the domain knowledge, medical policy expertise and access to a broad audience.

The platform can be expanded in the future to be rolled out to other sensitive medical issues (e.g. mental healthcare).