Rocket Health

Solution Name

Rocket Health

One-line solution summary.

Rocket Health for your Mental Health wellness and care through telepsychiatry and last mile medical services delivery.

What is your solution?

Our solution is an end-to-end digitally supported platform called Rocket Health, integrated telehealth and last-mile platform that supports prevention, care and treatment for mental health conditions targeting the youth. The solution consists a 24/7 medical call center staffed by qualified health professionals and counselors that offer remote support to beneficiaries’ inquiries through offline (USSD code, hotline and SMS) and online platforms (https://www.rockethealth.shop/) platforms. Users get to know the platform through media marketing and promotion campaigns and designing and disseminating promotional materials like posters and flyers with instructions on how to access the services. Once a teleconsultation is handled, it is documented in an electronic medical record system to which the client has access for continuity of care beyond the boundaries of Rocket Health. Encounters that necessitate further assessment i.e. laboratory and pharmacy refills are flagged off and get to be delivered at the client’s location of choice through Rocket Health’s last mile laboratory sample pick-up and medicine delivery service. Health content on mental health wellness is developed and translated into local languages and disseminated via mobile SMS in addition to leveraging social media pages for wider reach.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

Access to youth-friendly, quality and affordable mental health services.

In Uganda, mental health problems are recognized as a public health challenge contributing 13% to the national disease burden. Depression, anxiety, and elevated stress levels are the most common. According to the World Health Organization report (2017), Uganda, a predominantly young population, is ranked among the top six countries in Africa in rates of depressive disorders while 2.9% live with anxiety disorders with about 5.1% of females and 3.6% of males affected.

The 2018 survey by The Medical Concierge Group in collaboration with MTN Pulse to assess mental health in Uganda indicates that more than half of the 158 respondents had signs of depression, two weeks prior to taking the survey, but could not access the help they needed.

Factors contributing to the problem include structural barriers in the traditional healthcare system such as unfriendly services set-up that raise stigma concerns, drug-supply gaps, low psychiatrist-to-patient ratio and non-functional post-facility support services that often result into high relapse rate.

Consequently, young people may resort to negative coping strategies like drug-abuse, drop out of school, thus juvenile delinquency.

This may further cause loss of productivity and risk a vicious cycle of generational poverty among others.

The situation has been exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic that has crippled the economy and led to loss of employment, broken the support systems young people were accustomed to (schools, peers, social interactions) and trivialized the contribution of mental health to sustainable development, at a time when the world should be more cognizant of it.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Uganda’s population is relatively young, over 60% is below the age of 30 years. Our target population is an adolescent girl living in a rural area; her family is poor, and finds itself vulnerable to economic, political and environmental shocks. She has a one-in-four risk of becoming pregnant during adolescence, is at high risk of being engaged in early marriage and will likely drop out of school before reaching secondary level. The other is a young woman who survives on daily-wage work, probably supporting a family and living with constant fears and anxiety due to uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic that threaten her employment status.

Their situation often has a ripple effect on their mental health, aggravated by a combination of factors: expensive mental health services, unfriendly youth health services, cultural expectations, poor or non functional health systems and community support structures among others.

An end-to-end digitally supported platform that offers mental health wellness messages in a private and confidential way through mobile SMS and toll-free hotline platforms allows the youths to continuously engage with the health system in a less stigmatizing way. The closed group social chat spaces and online e-Shop allows for continued engagement in a secure setting.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

Prior to the design and roll-out of the Rocket Health’s mental health support program we did carryout audience consultations and focused group discussions to understand barriers to access and utilization of existing mental health services especially in the peri-urban areas. An online survey we did with MTN-Uganda, a telecom service provider showed that over 38% of respondents did not seek health care due to stigma and lack of access to health information. Link to survey results here. User centered design approaches including focused group discussions with end users revealed the need to design las-mile medical services delivery models that overcome long waiting time and queues at health facilities. Link to focused group discussion findings here. We continually engage with clients and potential users via our social media platforms, here is a customer testimonial on twitter.

We also partner with other civil society organizations to offer outreach community health activities within the impoverished communities in the peri-urban centers where we work.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

Our solution's stage of development:

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

Rocket Health is currently at the scale-up stage as we have a market-fit model that has been delivering services to customers for the last 3 years. We have attracted partnerships with both private sector players like health insurance companies and developmental partners like USAID with whom we have implemented regional and national public health projects. To date, we pride ourselves on over 2 million teleconsultations annually, 8 private health insurance partnerships with players like UAP-Old Mutual, Liberty, ICEA, Sanlam among others. We have also partnered with academic and research institutions like Makerere University School of Public Health with whom we have implemented a number of institutional review board approved research studies. Our business model is a hybrid of B2B2C, the B2C that involves direct sales of our Rocket health services to customers through one off purchases or through our prepaid health care plans and the B2B2C partnerships with private health insurance companies and developmental partners that cover the costs of health service access for specific demographics who in turn access subsidized or free health services from Rocket health. Thus, we are focusing on measurable growth in users, revenues and market traction to ensure self-reliance and sustainability to create long-term impact.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Team Lead:

Natasha Umuhoza