Medexer

Medexer Ltd

Medexer

Medexer is a digital platform that does one simple thing: connect blood donors to healthcare centers and vice versa.

Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

NGA

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

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Of the 196,000 women who die each year in sub-Saharan Africa from pregnancy-related complications, ⅓ die from bleeding; half of the maternal deaths from severe bleeding in the world occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and about 65% of these deaths occur after birth (postpartum hemorrhage), according to the World Health Organization (bit.ly/3EoEbYc). In 2017, Nigeria (one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world) accounted for nearly a quarter of global maternity deaths, with approximately 67,000 fatalities across the country (bit.ly/3RiZPA4). A significant contributor to these deaths is obstetric hemorrhage, particularly postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), which is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Nigeria. (bit.ly/42LJDO7). It is not as though postpartum hemorrhage or blood-related complications are not treatable, as many of these deaths would have been prevented if there had been adequate blood available. But here comes another problem: The African healthcare system is experiencing chronic blood shortages across its sectors. The Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service, NBTS, said the agency collects only 500,000 pints of blood out of the 1.8 million units needed by the country annually, which is a deficit of about 73.3% (bit.ly/4cyASdt).

Medexer is a digital health platform that makes emergency blood transfusions an effective lifeline for mothers suffering from postpartum hemorrhage. When a clinician taps the button on a blood request on our hospital dashboard, not only does our geolocation technology circle maps around donors, but our AI matching algorithm (trained on previous returns and placements) is used to search these maps to find donors and their phone numbers, with each of them can be contacted within minutes of each other. Medexer is integrated with hospital records and hospital inventory systems, allowing medical teams to concentrate on patient care rather than logistics. Our public telehealth/physical support will also help donors navigate the donation process, including before and after donation, protecting them, and building trust. Our solution reduces door-to-donor times by as much as 40 percent. Finally, our outreach to communities through partnerships with local NGOs and governmental organizations helps us understand better how to serve these women and young girls, helping them learn how to prevent situations that will lead to complications in childbirth that will lead to much better maternal health.

With Medexer catering to mothers-to-be and still-nursing mothers, the target audience includes pregnant women and new mothers in Nigeria and in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in rural and not well-developed urban areas. These women experience life-threatening bleeding after giving birth, but many hospitals aren’t equipped with reliable blood supplies or rapid methods of sourcing donors. Meanwhile, willing volunteers frequently don’t know how or where to give, and myths and culture around blood may hold back people who want to donate. Our platform bridges this gap by connecting hospitals with local volunteers in real time. In an emergency when blood is needed, Medexer identifies and alerts the nearest pre-screened or screened donor, reducing crucial lead times and enabling lifesaving transfusions. Our platform also empowers donors by giving them their health data, because after screening the blood, the hospitals upload the test results to the desktop app with the donor’s ID, making it accessible to the donor, which they would have otherwise paid for.