Health-Care.Solutions

Bangladesh has 164.7 million population. 1 of 10 people has diabetes. It is growing constantly. Sadly, 56% of the patients are totally unaware of the disease. 60% patients doesn't take regular treatment which eventually creates huge disease burden like - diabetic complexities, kidney disease, heart disease, eye disease along with serious financial burden both at personal and national level.

Health-Care.Solutions aims to fix this big problem in three steps:

1. Providing reliable information
2. Increasing diagnosis
3. Empowering self-management with mobile phone intervention

We are planning to fix the awareness gap by providing evidence based
information. We have found, people are exposed to diabetes
and related health information which are mostly incomplete, non-evidence based and potentially fatal.

To empower disease management at personal level (self-management) we
will introduce mobile phone application. More

To fix the treatment gap, we have our unique idea which is named as
Patient Support Program (PSP).  More

[Our Project]

• In Bangladesh, diabetes is a nationwide problem. It is mostly prevalent in the urban area.
• According to the latest research, 10% of the Bangladeshi population are affected by diabetes.
• Awareness gap, treatment coverage gap, treatment adherence gap, and disease control gap.

A study (Akter et al. 2014) shows - diabetes prevalence in Bangladesh is 9.7%. Around 56% of the diabetes is undetected. It means, patients are totally unaware that - they have the disease. Of the total diabetes patients, 39.5% doesn't take regular treatment. And only 12% can control the disease.

Combining these facts, our proposed solution will address the diabetes management problem in three phases: 1) Creating awareness, 2) Increasing diagnosis and 3) Implementing patient support program (PSP) with mobile phone intervention.

Reference:
Akter, S., Mizanur Rahman, M., Abe, S. K., & Sultana, P. (2014). Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes and their risk factors among Bangladeshi adults: A nationwide survey. Bull World Health Organ, 92(3), 204-213A. doi:10.2471/BLT.13.128371

• Well, we have not launched the project yet. However we are aiming the serve the people who have Type 2 diabetes. We will also serve the most vulnerable group to help them detect their disease (as noted before, 56% diabetes is undetected in Bangladesh).
• Our solution will help to detect the underacted diabetes, provide them evidence based information, increase the treatment coverage and help them to control their disease better.

As discussed before, our solution has three layers - 1) Information, 2) Diagnosis and 3) Disease management.

1. Information: We have found, due to the rise of social media, Bangladeshi diabetes patients are exposed to diabetes and related health information which are mostly incomplete, false, misleading, non-evidence based and potentially fatal. Using our web and mobile phone application we will empower people with reliable diabetes information which is evidence based. Currently, Health-Care.Solutions is our website. We are developing it continuously.
2. Diagnosis: In order to reduce the percentage of undetected diabetes, we will work on increasing the diagnosis test. However, since diagnosis is expensive, we will develop an online diabetes risk assessment calculator (similar to this) to minimize the unnecessary diagnosis test. Due to the funding insufficiency, we can't implement this calculator in our website.
3.  Management: Third part of our solution is diabetes management. Our diabetes management system has two unique components - a) PSP and b) Mobile phone application. Our PSP (Patient Support Program) is an unique and improved approach of the existing diabetes care system in Bangladesh. This PSP approach aims to increase treatment treatment coverage, treatment adherence and disease control. Our research paper on PSP can be found here (PSP)
   
   Finally, our mobile phone application will be an integral part of our PSP. This app will aim to improve debates progress tracking of the user. Report generated from this application will help the doctors to treat the patients better. This is our current research project. Some details can be found here (Mobile App).

Bangladesh has a high prevalence of diabetes and it is growing constantly. Half of the diabetes is not detected. Large number of patients don't take treatment. Few patients continue the treatment and very few can control the disease.

Our project aims to fix these issues  by providing information, increasing diagnosis and empowering better disease management. 

1. Information: Our project aims to provide evidence based health information for the diabetes patients. Currently Bangladeshi people are exposed to misleading health information which have (in most of the cases) no scientific base.

2. PSP: Our PSP model is the improved version of the existing diabetes care model in Bangladesh.

3. Mobile app: Our proposed app will generate data and report which will help to treat the patient better. In addition to that, the data generated from the app can be used for research purpose. 

Diabetes is emerging as a major health issue in Bangladesh and it has been
increasing for the last three decades (1-4). It is estimated, by 2045
Bangladesh will be in the 9th position among the top 10 countries for number of people with diabetes (1). Diabetes is the root cause of - heart disease which is the 1st leading cause of death in Bangladesh. In addition to that diabetes also contribute to the development of kidney failure, blindness and foot amputation.

So, diabetes needs to be addressed.

Hence, our aim is to fix the root case of the bigger problem.

Our existing diabetes care model is working. But the low level of treatment coverage, and disease control suggest - current care model has room for improvement.

We are offering improved model which encompass new technology and with smart solutions.

Reference:

1. International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas 8th Edition. International Diabetes Federation; 2017.
2. Akter S, Rahman MM, Abe SK, Sultana P. Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes and their risk factors among Bangladeshi adults: a nationwide survey. BULLETIN OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. 2014;92(3):204-13.
3. Biswas T, Islam A, Rawal LB, Islam SMS. Increasing prevalence of diabetes in Bangladesh: a scoping review. Public Health. 2016;138:4-11.
4. Saquib N, Khanam MA, Saquib J, Anand S, Chertow GM, Barry M, et al. High prevalence of type 2 diabetes among the urban middle class in Bangladesh. BMC PUBLIC HEALTH. 2013;13(1):1032-.

1. Currently, we are in the development phase. So we don't serve anyone right now. 
2. However, in the first year we aim to serve the people of Chittagong. Because, Chittagong has the highest prevalence of diabetes.
3. In the five year, we will expand in Dhaka and Khulna (covering the rural areas too).

Our coverage will be based on 'finding and serving the most vulnerable group'.

1. Within next year, we want to improve and polish our plan.
2. On the second year, we will launch our first pilot project in Chittagong.
3. After operating two years in Chittagong, we will expand in two more cities.

1. Idea development and polishing
2. Technology development (website and app prototype)
3. Strategic alliance (with hospitals, professional bodies)
4. Finance

1. Doing research on our project
2. Developing team
3. Applying for funding opportunity
4. Applying for business incubator program

Only me.

I am Sajal Kanti Ghosh. I am the founder of this project. I have the following skills:

1. Master of Public Health from Queensland University of Technology, Australia
2. MBA and BBA from Jagannath University, Bangladesh
3. Research publication on this area
4. Working experience on diabetes management and health care
5. Web development

N/A

Our Business Plan can be found here:

http://health-care.solutions/b...

Tiger It can help me to develop my website and my mobile app. All of the bak-end database and analytics support can be given by them.

For evidence based health-knowledge I am planning to partner with the Queensland University of Technology. For the technological, Tiger IT can be a great partner. For the strategic alliance, I am planning to work with the hospitals and professional bodies who can serve the diabetes patients.