MedTrack

The problem of lack of continuity of healthcare across various care providers and the loss of health information when accessed outside the formal framework cuts across the entire population. Every patient who has to go across more than one point of care is affected by this problem. This has been recognised by the World Health Organization, which states that "the absence of an effective approach to managing patient information contributes significantly to avoidable morbidity and mortality". 

Product Documentary

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MedTrack is a cloud-based Electronic Health Records system that allows all the stakeholders of the healthcare industry (doctors, community pharmacies, diagnostic centres) to have real-time access to their patients' medical histories through an easy-to-use web application without requiring any additional hardware or software installation.

Electronic health records (EHR) is the way forward for medicine, but there is no universal system that allows providers to share patient data with other physicians, diagnostic centres or community pharmacies efficiently.

By linking health records with national digital identity numbers, we can standardise health data that can be securely accessed by providers and patients across different facilities.

Ghana's government has successfully issued a national biometric digital ID card to over 60% of the general population as of 2021. The national digital identification effort is expected to cover more than 90% of the population by the end of 2022. MedTrack is using this free nationwide channel as an enabler to bring portable Electronic Health Records to every citizen. Using the digital ID number as unique identifiers for patients, health records are securely saved, retrieved or share across different platforms or facilities.

This move to provide digital biometric ID for every citizen is not peculiar to only Ghana, The African Union Agenda 2068, World Bank’s ID for Development Initiative and the SDG 16.9 are all focused on helping developing countries implement efficient biometric identification for over a billion people in Africa. Our vision is to bring this platform to Africa’s 1 billion residents through their various national biometric identification systems.

MedTrack Documentary

Patients: The lack of continuity of healthcare across various care providers and the loss of health information when accessed outside the formal framework cuts across the entire population. Every patient who has to go across more than one point of care is affected by this problem. This has been recognised by the World Health Organization, which states that "the absence of an effective approach to managing patient information contributes significantly to avoidable morbidity and mortality". 

Ghana's government has successfully issued a national biometric digital ID card to over 60% of the general population. The national digital identification effort is expected to cover more than 90% of the people by 2023. MedTrack uses this free nationwide resource to bring portable Electric Health Records to every citizen. Health records are securely saved, retrieved, or shared across different platforms or facilities using the digital ID number as unique identifiers for patients.

The median age in Ghana is 21.1; 20.6 Male and 21.6 Females; we have a relatively young population. However, this group of people are the fastest adopters of new technologies, and we believe they would grow with this project to help populate an even more extensive health records database.

We now connect 128 thousand Ghanaians' health data with their national identity cards. Our goal is ten million by 2023 as part of an intensive public onboarding campaign.

Healthcare providers: Electronic health records (EHR) are the way forward for medicine, but there is no universal system that allows providers to efficiently share patient data with other physicians, diagnostic centres, or community pharmacies.

Our cloud-based Electronic Health Records system allows all the healthcare industry stakeholders (doctors, community pharmacies, diagnostic centres) to have real-time access to their patients' medical histories through an easy-to-use web application without requiring any additional hardware or software installation. In addition, by linking health records with national digital identity numbers, we can standardise health data that providers and patients across different facilities can securely access. 

About $141m was invested in healthtech startups in Africa as of 2020. By enabling these next-generation healthcare providers, such as virtual care and telemedicine platform, to securely connect to our health records database, we can ensure that the patient information is available in one place for rapid access. This eliminates further data fragmentation as these technologies become ubiquitous, and developers do not also have to re-invent the wheel by investing in developing their database. 

MedTrack is a 100% home-grown solution designed to improve the inefficiencies in the local healthcare delivery chain in Ghana and Africa.

Our core team is a mix of healthcare industry experts and three technical Co-founders. Healthcare experts; A  PhD in Health Informatics, a General Surgeon and an MPH. Technical co-founders; Full Stack Developer, Product and Accessibility Designer and a Product Development Expert. 

We have experience from real-life physician-patient encounters to various EMR systems or paper-based record management modules in multiple locations across Africa. For example, our co-founder, Justice Croffie, led the deployment of a national Health Information System for Congo. In addition, he continues to consult on health informatics in several healthcare facilities in the United States, such as the New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 

This unique combination offers unparalleled insight into how different areas within the expansive healthcare field operate. Our team's experience in the various aspects of the design and development of software systems ensures that all project requirements are met effectively, without the need to outsource critical components.

We are applying to solve to connect with international development organisations such as the World Bank's ID 4 Development Initiative, USAID, UNICEF and UNDP that are already assisting LMIC to realise the potential of digital identification. We believe our goal to deploy electronic health records through a national digital identification system aligns with these international organisations' goals that aim to promote the provision of essential social services to all citizens, including the vulnerable and marginalised populace.

As a component of our EHR system, the MedTrack health records database is a continent-wide, secure public API that enables interoperability between systems and providers. In addition, it's more reliable than current paper-based records management and existing vendor-based EMRs systems because it integrates citizens' medical data into one database point of access by using national digital identities as unique identifiers for easier sharing across providers, facilities or even countries.

African countries have spent millions of dollars deploying their national digital identification in the past five years. In Ghana, for example, $290 million went towards building our national biometric ID card called 'Ghana Card', and Nigeria recently deployed an NFC-based system that is expected to cost them around $433 million by 2021. This goal of providing identification for every citizen by 2030 and enrollment in financial and social services such as national health insurance schemes is ambitious. It will be achieved through various partnerships with innovations such as MedTrack, which is working to bring digital electronic records to every person in Africa through these IDs. 

In 5 years, we will have a presence in 20 African countries using similar enrolment strategies with national digital id campaigns.

Our major barriers is slow facility adoption and the man-hours required to convert a single facility. We believe that partnerships and collaborations with governments can help speed up the adoption process. For instance, our pending partnership with the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) would allow us to deploy in over 340 clinics/hospitals across Ghana and potentially process about 38 million patient records per year.

The deployment of MedTrack since March 2020 has seen a quick adoption among Pregnant women in their Antenatal Assessments. The ease of accessing clinical data during assessment and previous history, especially when it was not done at the same facility, has greatly impacted.

479 pregnant women have been registered on MedTrack, and 311 newborn babies have been enrolled on the platform.

Especially new mothers have appreciated our curated content for Antenatal care. It informs them of what to expect at each stage of the pregnancy and the “red flags” at each stage in their pregnancy and immediate actions to take. Subsequent reviews have been made easier as their clinicians easily pull up all their previous information and formulate treatment plans.

Our cohort of 479 pregnant women recorded:

• Improved attendance at the Antenatal clinic
• Compliance with their supplements, especially Iron, Folic acid and Septrin( Malaria prophylaxis)
• Early reporting of danger signs during late pregnancy
• Reduced rates of perinatal infections and neonatal infections
• Stillbirth rates, especially fresh stillbirths, have also reduced.

PROBLEM STATEMENT 

1. Lack of access. to patient health information to provide quality care
2. Absence of continuity of care when patients are moving from one point of service to another
3. Single source of truth for patient health information. No secured, universally accessible health records database.
4. Lack of unique identifiers for patients across different platforms or providers

Key Assumption:

1. Patients access healthcare from multiple sources and locations.
2. There is no transfer of patient health data from one point of care or source to the other (e.g. transfer of health data from institutional care to private facilities).

KEY STAKEHOLDERS 

1. Patients and the general population
2. Healthcare facilities, i.e. Hospitals/clinics, Pharmacies and diagnostic centres
3. Providers, i.e. Physicians/doctors
4. Healthtech platforms, i.e. telemedicine platforms, health insurance companies

Key Assumptions:

1. Patients need to access single health records across multiple platforms or providers.
2. Healthcare facilities need to digitise their records and workflow for increased efficiency and enhanced quality of service delivery.
3. Governments need population health data for policymaking and monitoring health trends and outbreaks of diseases.

KEY ACTIVITIES 

1. Development of a vendor-neutral EHR system for hospitals that connects to other auxiliary points of care; Pharmacy and Diagnostics
2. Deploy a secured public health records database and API to allow third-party providers to easily integrate and access patient health information.
3. Develop Patient health records portal for records accessibility and portability by patients with offline features such as SMS and USSD.
4. Designs Health messaging platform to engage the populace by providing preventive health and lifestyle information to improve health-seeking behaviours.

Keys assumptions 

1. Healthcare facilities are willing to adopt EHR systems to streamline their operations.
2. Patients want to link national digital ID to health data to access continuous care across different facilities.
3. Health technology platforms are willing to integrate health data API to save them the time and money needed to build their own health records database.
4. Governments are open to public-private sector partnerships in designing and deploying efficient health systems that use publicly available channels like National Digital IDs.

OUTPUTS 

1. Integration of national digital ID in the design of the MedTrack Electronic Health Records system
2. Onboard private and quasi-government healthcare facilities such as the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG)
3. Community user onboarding programmes to connect over 100,000 persons' national IDs to their respective health data
4. Deployment secured public health data API 

Assumptions

1. Mass adoption across multi private healthcare providers
2. Government buy-in and deployment of solutions on a national scale

OUTCOMES

Short-term

1. Decrease the financial burden on the patient by eliminating the repetition of tests and duplication of medication
2. Decrease health danger to patients that may occur due to lack of comprehensive health information and misdiagnosis
3. Patient health records portability can enhance access to healthcare. By providing easy access to medical records, patients can get the care they need more quickly and efficiently. This can save lives by ensuring that people get the treatment they need in a timely manner.
4. Healthcare facilities' access to patient health data and medical history enhances quality care delivery in healthcare facilities. By having all of the necessary information easily accessible and organised, providers can make informed decisions that improve patient outcomes. In addition, enhanced communication between physicians and patients leads to an overall positive experience for everyone involved

Long term

1. Create a universal access point that provides a secure healthcare database across different platforms. These data sources would include but are not limited to EHRs, Medications, Medical Imaging, Claims etc. Providers save time and money by removing the need for multiple installations or reconciliation of various records to provide service seamlessly from one source. 
2. Developing a single patient identification system that can be used across many different healthcare providers and platforms is critical for increasing safety and reducing medical errors in hospitals.
3. Monitoring the health of a population can help authorities identify potential health risks such as impending pandemics and take steps to mitigate them. By keeping track of the population's health through MedTrack, authorities can detect patterns and take action to protect public health.

Assumptions:

1. An efficient Electronic Health Records (EHR) system will allow health authorities to spot disease patterns and serve as an early warning for outbreaks or pandemics.
2. The health centres are equipped with a cloud-based Electronic Health Records (EHR) system that can be used to process patient information in real-time, interconnecting to auxiliary health services such as community pharmacies and diagnostic centres. This will improve patient health management and lead to better health outcomes.
3. Digital health records in the pilot community create a health records database for continuous holistic care of residents

Cloud-based Electronic Health Records system with integrations with SMS and USSD technologies to provide offline access and a reliable health messaging platform for patients.

We are a Ghanaian startup founded by young professionals from different sectors of society. 3 out of 6 founders are Northern Ghanaians - traditionally considered the poorest and most deprived parts of Ghana. Medtrack has strong female representation at both founding level and management positions within the company, which is rare for startups focused on technology solutions.

Our team fosters a culture of inclusivity and accessibility to ensure our products are inclusive for all. We do this by creating a mix of technologies from design, development, deployment stages so it can be used across many platforms with different capabilities - from SMS text messaging alerts delivered straight to all types of phones used by beneficiaries up to simple logins on any internet-enabled device for primarily to care providers.

1. Patient 

Product offering: Portable Health Records accessible through web or mobile with SMS integration for offline access

Service offering: 

a. Curated Health Messaging through SMS 

b. Chronic Disease Management

2. Hospital/Clinic

Product offering: Interconnect Electronic Health Records System

Service offering: Customisation and additional functionalities on demand

3. Pharmacy

Product offering: Interconnect Electronic Health Records System with inventory management and branch integration

4. Diagnostic centres

Product offering: Interconnect Electronic Health Records System with inventory management and branch integration

5. Health technology platforms

Service offering: Secured Health Records database tied patient national digital ID 

Our current revenue model is based on patient data processing fees by healthcare facilities. We intend to expand our service offering to include inventory management, Bill Processes and Claims management. In addition, the MedTrack Patient Health Data API deployment across major African countries would significantly increase our patient data process revenue through integration with emerging healthtech solutions such as Virtual Care and Telemedicine providers.

Grants (pending):  $250,000 - WFP Digital Innovation Accelerator Programme

Revenue - Patient Data Process Fee (2021): $18,000.00

Value Added Service request from Healthcare facilities (*2022): $7,500.00