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Innovative Healthcare Apps in Sub-Saharan Africa

Healthcare Apps in Sub-Saharan Africa
Although sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly 11% of the world’s population, it carries approximately 24% of the global disease burden. The region spends less than 1% on global health expenditure and lacks a strong infrastructure to address its citizens’ healthcare necessities.

Advancements in technology may be the solution to this crisis. The mobile industry in sub-Saharan Africa is growing rapidly. In 2012, only 32% of the population had access to a mobile subscription. By 2018, the mobile industry saw a 12% increase in mobile penetration rates. As a result, innovative healthcare apps are being released on the market, allowing individuals to access medical services remotely. This article will focus on three innovative healthcare apps in sub-Saharan Africa that can be accessed through a mobile device.

Hello Doctor: Providing Remote Medical Assistance

Hello Doctor is a mobile healthcare app that was developed in South Africa. It is currently one of the most popular mobile healthcare apps on the market and is available in 10 different countries. The app allows patients to have healthcare that is accessible, affordable and personalized.

The app requires a subscription of $3 per month. It allows a subscriber to “carry a doctor in their pocket.” After filing a request, subscribers are connected with a doctor via text message or phone call. All requests are responded to within an hour. All doctors accessed through the application are registered medical professionals.

The app also has a symptom checker in which patients can note their concerns and are provided with a list of potential diagnoses. It is also updated daily with new content to provide fundamental healthcare advice to patients. This app is most beneficial to citizens who may not be able to easily travel to their nearest healthcare clinic.

Pelebox: Delivering Essential Medication

Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDs remain a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa. These chronic diseases must be treated with medication that is picked up from the clinic. However, the limited number of clinics, a shortage of healthcare professionals and a high patient volume create excessive wait times for patients.

Pelebox, a South African app, manages smart lockers that dispense refills of prescriptions to patients. Instead of waiting hours to be seen in the clinic, patients can retrieve their prescriptions within a matter of seconds. Pelebox’s goal is to reduce the burden on hospital staff so that they can focus their attention on patients in critical care.

Here is how the app works. The patient is enrolled in the clinic’s collection program, the prescription is issued and the medication is placed into the locker. Clients will receive a one-time-pin via text message from the system. Patients enter their phone number and PIN at the self-service interface and retrieve their prescriptions from the cubicle. The cubicle is accessible at any time. Through its innovative approach in delivering essential medication, Pelebox has reached approximately 3,000 patients. The company is also planning to set up an additional 30 units in the next five years to continue to expand its reach.

MedAfrica: An All-in-One Healthcare App

MedAfrica, a product of Shimba Mobile, is one of the most popular healthcare apps in sub-Saharan Africa. It was first launched in Kenya in November 2011. By March 2012, it had approximately 70,000 users and was released into several other countries.

The app was created to make healthcare more accessible, affordable and safer. The app is free to use and works on any operating system. It is an all-in-one healthcare app that has various features. It provides users with a directory of qualified doctors and hospitals that are nearby. It also has a symptom checker available to its users so they can decide whether they’d like to pursue further medical advice or treatment. After the diagnosis, they can easily connect with the proper specialist. Users also receive first-aid advice and health updates from local hospitals.

Advancements in Healthcare Through Apps

An underfunded infrastructure, shortage of medical professionals and high patient volumes make for a fragile healthcare system. The surge of healthcare apps in sub-Saharan Africa is a great start to combating these issues. The innovative technologies that are being released for consumer use may be the key to granting much-needed healthcare access to individuals who need it the most.

– Jasmine Daniel
Photo: Flickr

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Healthcare Apps Help Remote Populations in Africa

healthcare apps
In September 2000, the United Nations released a list of eight Millennium Development Goals that aimed to enhance gender equality, literacy, education and health in developing nations. Goals four through six specifically target the need to improve child mortality rates, maternal health and disease prevention in underdeveloped regions. Achieving these goals requires information distribution among populations, thus equipping individuals with the resources necessary to practice safe self-care. Two healthcare apps called MedAfrica and the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) are providing these resources to the most remote parts of Africa. The apps give life-saving health advice via voice calls, SMS and the web, and are working to eradicate healthcare inadequacies in Africa.

Poverty and Health Linked

The experiences of many developing countries showcase correlations between low poverty rates and the success of healthcare systems. Low-income regions face high child mortality, low economic and educational development and increased disease transmission. Overcrowded living conditions common in low-income areas aid in the rapid spread of disease. In many African nations, the lack of available medical practitioners increases infection rates, places a financial strain on families and reduces the availability of educational health resources. Kenya, for example, has more than 40 million residents but only 7,000 medical professionals, which presents a clear disparity in access to care compared to higher-income countries.

Pregnant mothers often suffer the most from poverty. In low-income countries, more than 500,000 women die every year either during or after pregnancy. According to Dr. Charles P. Larson, improper prenatal care not only affects mothers, but it also threatens children’s growth and overall health. Children may face impaired cognition, causing intense behavioral problems and hindering school performance. The primary reason for these problems is a severe lack of access to healthcare information, which highlights a dire need to deliver accessible healthcare to underserved populations. Healthcare apps are helping many regions of Africa do just that.

MedAfrica

Shimba Technology launched MedAfrica in 2011 with the hope of providing health information and connectivity resources to people in Kenya and Uganda. The company’s primary goal was to increase interaction between practitioners and their patients through different communication systems available on the app. However, like other healthcare apps, MedAfrica does far more than create conversation. While in-person consultations often monopolize a doctor’s time, MedAfrica relieves pressure on overworked practitioners. The app’s audio calls, SMS and online instructions give individuals the tools they need to deal with general problems while allowing immediate medical issues to have a doctor’s time and attention.

MedAfrica users simply input their symptoms to receive diagnoses, basic information about medicine and a suggested treatment routine. If a patient needs to visit a doctor, the app provides a detailed registry, so the patient can choose who will monitor their care. The registry also defends against fraudulent providers, as every physician listed must undergo vetting and receive approval.

The app stands out from other healthcare apps for its success. MedAfrica won €15,000 in the 2012 Ericsson Application Awards, an annual competition that recognizes international app excellence. The app was also named one of the Top 10 Favorite Startups at Silicon Valley’s DEMO Conference due to its “hit factor” and “Technology for Good” assessment. In the future, Shimba Technology plans to expand MedAfrica’s reach in Africa before venturing into Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

MAMA

Limited access to medical counsel is particularly alarming for impoverished pregnant women who are at a greater risk for preterm birth, restricted intrauterine growth and maternal death. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) in 2011 to address this issue. MAMA now provides innovative solutions for health information deprivation in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria and South Africa. Since its inception, the app has collected $4.5 million in public and private investments.

Because communication channels differ in each country, MAMA alters its program based on phone and internet access, literacy rates and channel cost. For example, when literacy is low, MAMA uses audio messages instead of SMS. If internet access is widely available, the app relies on web connection. Local dialects in the app also help customize user experiences and increase usage rates. In these ways and more, MAMA is constantly changing to accommodate its users’ locations and situations.

Additional functions of the app include peer support, knowledge sharing, and the option to turn on notifications. Some of the most significant MAMA app features are birth plan distributions, childcare and breastfeeding tips and the option for mothers to record their due dates in order to learn more about their pregnancy stages.

In just eight years, MAMA has gained almost 3.5 million subscribers in four countries alone, making it a success among a plethora of healthcare apps. MAMA recently invested $10 million into building its programs in Bangladesh, India and South Africa, three countries where the app has been largely successful.

One Step Closer

As MedAfrica and MAMA continue their work, the countries in which they operate will become one step closer to achieving at least three of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Increased access to proper healthcare and self-care information reduces poverty by increasing self-sufficiency and allowing families to focus on education, entrepreneurship and other means of national development. Healthcare apps are one proven way to accomplish this goal.

– Natalie Clark
Photo: Flickr

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10 Health Care Apps in Developing Countries

Healthcare Apps
The relationship between phones and medical care evolved rapidly with the rise of smartphones. Not only do people now have an effective means of communication at their fingertips, but they also have information and, lately, an increasing number of medical tools as well. Here are ten health care apps making a significant impact in developing countries.

10 Health Care Apps in Developing Countries

  1. Peek: Peek has its sights set on helping people with vision impairment issues and blindness, a problem exacerbated in developing countries by a lack of resources. Peek can identify people with vision problems and work with health care providers to pinpoint an economically feasible way to supply the treatment they need. Currently, the International Centre for Eye Health uses Peek at the London School of Hygiene. Tropical Medicine is also administering a population-based survey of blindness and visual impairments in Cambodia.
  2. SASAdoctor: SASAdoctor is making health care consultations more accessible in Kenya, where only 12% of the population is insured. The app is available to all Kenyans with an Android smartphone or tablet (65% of the population). For the uninsured, using SASAdoctor is cheaper than an in-person consultation, bringing costs down to the equivalent of $4.66. Patients have their medical history, list of medications and other medical notes in the app. This ensures that the consulting professionals will have the information they need to create an informed medical opinion. A projected 80% of Kenyans will have smartphones in the next few years, making the app increasingly beneficial.
  3. iWander: The purpose of iWander is to help keep track of dementia patients. Set with tracking technology that can be discretely worn by the patient, the app gives users more control over the care of loved ones, which can be vital in countries where health care may be less accessible. By helping families be proactive to crises, iWander can help cut costs, as home care for dementia patients is often expensive.
  4. Kenek O2: Kenek O2 allows the user to monitor their oxygen levels and heart rate while they sleep. Built for iPhones, the app also requires a pulse oximeter which connects to the phone. Together, the cost for these two items is around $100. In contrast, a regular hospital oximeter and similar products could cost upward of $500. Having been used effectively in North America, South America, Asia and Africa, Kenek O2 is currently working on developing a special COVID-19 device to watch for early signs of hypoxia, or the deficiency of oxygen reaching tissues.
  5. First Derm: First Derm also requires a smartphone-connected device called a dermatoscope. This enables patients to take detailed pictures of skin conditions for effective teleconsultations. In places where patients have little access to health care facilities, this makes getting a second medical opinion much easier. So far, First Derm has helped in more than 15,000 users from Sweden, Chile, China, Australia and Ghana. Of these, 70% could be treated without a doctor, most often by over-the-counter treatments available at local pharmacies.
  6. Ada: Functioning as a personal health assistant, Ada provides medical advice to users who input their symptoms. The app is intended to assist those who don’t have the means to seek an in-person consultation right away. Currently, 10 million people around the world are using Ada for symptom evaluation.
  7. Babylon: Another app that’s intended to mitigate the obstacle of going to see a doctor in person, Babylon allows users to input their symptoms. The app specializes in non-emergent medicine, allowing patients to skip a trip to the doctor’s office entirely if their condition allows it. This is beneficial in places where doctors are sparse, or the patient lacks the financial means to get to the hospital. Babylon caters to users across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Rwanda and several countries across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The goal is to expand to even more countries in the coming years.
  8. MobiSante: When connected to its ultrasound device, MobiSante provides quality diagnostic imaging. The ultrasound is then sent directly to the patient, enabling them to receive health care outside the confines of a hospital or clinic. The app brings more holistic and informed treatments to people who may have previously struggled in finding a place with the proper resources to diagnose them.
  9. Go.Data: Go.Data is a tool released by the WHO specifically for collecting data during global health emergencies. During the Ebola outbreak in Africa, Go.Data, praised for tracing points of contact, also tracked infection trends and helped in arranging post-contact follow up.
  10. Mobile Midwife: A digital charting app that stores information in the cloud, Mobile Midwife ensures midwives have access to pertinent patient information. Mobile Midwife is designed to function even where an internet connection isn’t reliable. It is beneficial in areas with high mother and infant mortality, helping health providers give high-quality care.

Bridging health care with smartphone apps isn’t a perfect solution, as it often comes with accessibility issues of its own. However, these apps can help people connect virtually with medical professionals, increasing access to health care and often reducing costs. The result is a more equal distribution of power between the health care system and the patient, empowering a healthier (and more health-conscious) population.

– Catherine Lin
Photo: Flickr

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The Accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence in Alleviating Poverty

The Accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence in Alleviating Poverty
In the first half of the twentieth century, Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolved around just science fiction movies but it has come a long way since then. From presenting targeted ads based on one’s Google search history to SIRI and self-driving cars, AI has made progress in various socioeconomic issues as well.

Medical Accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence

One of the most remarkable breakthroughs of AI and machine learning is in healthcare applications. People are using various apps to learn more about themselves and lead a happier and healthier life.

  1. Autism & Beyond App: Recent research shows autism can be detected as early as 18 months old using AI, while previously the disease could not be detected before five years of age. The app Autism & Beyond can study a child’s emotions and behavior from their expressions and understand a child much better to provide early effective treatment.
  2. EpiWatch: This app has been very helpful for patients with epilepsy as it accurately helps measure the body’s vitals during the onset and duration of a seizure in real time. EpiWatch then learns from this data and can predict whether such seizures are imminent. Once the accelerometer and heart rate sensors are triggered, the caregiver or a family member is alerted so there is enough time for the patient to receive immediate help.
  3. Concussion Tracker: This app helps monitor a head injury for a consecutive six weeks by tracking the heart rate and recording other physiological and cognitive functions. It helps to figure out how fatal the concussion is and its possible consequences.
  4. Tumor Detection: Doctors can easily detect a tumor in the brain but quantifying exactly how big it has long been difficult. Microsoft’s Inner Eye has made this possible and has helped accelerate the time of the treatment.

Advancements in AI for Agriculture

Apart from Medical Science, accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence in the fields of agriculture have become widespread. Agriculture is not just old school farming anymore. High tech agriculture starts with variable rate planting equipment that helps identify where a seed will grow best and in what soil conditions it will grow better, thus making farming more efficient than it has ever been. Various AI-based robotic harvesting equipment has also been invented which helps to harvest crops like fruits and berries.

Global Fishing Watch is also one of the many accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence, which has helped stopped illegal fishing across the ocean. Over three billion people depend on seafood for protein in their diets. The global economy loses $83 billion every year to illegal fishing and poor fishery management.

Global Fishing Watch has brought more transparency on the fishing location and behaviors of commercial fishing fleets from every corner of the ocean through processed data sets and fishing activity maps with 95 percent accuracy. Indonesia is the first nation to show its results and, already, multibillion-dollar fines have been charged from the evidence gathered.

AI Combating Global Poverty

Artificial Intelligence has also been a game changer to help predict poverty and fight hunger. Tracking poverty in various places through household survey-based data collection was expensive so AI came to the rescue. In recent years, scientists have tried to identify rich or poor regions by studying nighttime satellite photos on the basis of which places glow brightly.

However, this approach came with a limitation: it could not differentiate between places suffering from near-poverty and those with absolute poverty. A research group at Stanford University recently fed the computer both nighttime and high-resolution daytime satellite images of five countries in Africa along with the household survey data. The device found features like concrete buildings, well-developed roads, agricultural regions and urban areas which helped predict poor places with 81 to 99 percent accuracy. United Nations claims this to be one of the biggest accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence.

Many times, the media focuses on the negative sides of AI but scientists are hopeful that the accomplishments of Artificial Intelligence will do more good than bad. With many more advancements to come, the socioeconomic status of the world is sure to change for the better.

– Shweta Roy
Photo: Google