CHRONmate

CHRONmate is working to build equitable health systems in light of how chronic and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can be better addressed in less developed regions. There is an established inequality in chronic disease incidence, prevalence, and interventions. Non-communicable chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases, kill 36 million people every year including 14 million people who die young between the ages of 30 to 70.

Two decades before now, chronic diseases were much more associated with urbanized and industrialized regions of the world. Causative factors such as high fat/salty/sweetened/artificially processed diets, physical inactivity, alcohol use, tobacco use, and environmental contamination were known to be prevalent in such regions, leading to high cases of chronic diseases.

However, the new normal in less developed regions like Africa is an alarming rise in cases, sufferings, and deaths due to such chronic diseases. Unlike the developed climes whose health systems have been structured for years to offer long-term care to their affected citizens through cost-saving health plans and policies, Africa is yet to rise up to the challenge. According to the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs (2011), Low-and-middle-income-countries (LMICs) have compressed timelines for mounting an effective national response and need to catch up with four decades of action undertaken in high-income countries.

As a result, LMICs already bear a glaring 86% of premature deaths, resulting in cumulative economic losses of US$ 7 trillion over the next 15 years with millions of people trapped in poverty. Advocacy and policy reforms targeted at prevention remain minimal. Sufferings and deaths are marginalized to the poor who lack resources for long-term care, thus generating more inequities in healthcare delivery.

Specifically, patients living with chronic diseases in Africa today, are faced with high expenses, frustrating hospital waiting times, poor follow-up care, medical errors/complications, disability, reduced productivity, and psychological stress. These have a sizeable negative impact on the economy and the progress of affected households, societies, and nations.

We at Chronic Disease Mate for Africa, are passionate about enabling systematic interventions toward chronic diseases in Africa through approaches tailored towards advocacy, prevention, research, innovation, and multisectoral collaboration – in order to address this new ‘epidemic’. Our mobile App solution, CHRONmate aims to play the role of companion for patients, carers, and healthcare providers, as far as chronic disease management and prevention is concerned.

CHRONmate is an all-in-one mobile app solution that provides long-term medical care and support to persons living with chronic disease(s), their carers (e.g. relatives), as well as those at risk of developing the conditions (due to hereditary or exposures). We take responsibility for their improved health outcomes through follow-up medical care (with in-person visits), strong support community, health records management, and provision of essential health products – all in a cost-saving and secure space.

CHRONmate is an initiative of Chronic Disease Mate for Africa, a registered non-profit in Nigeria on a mission to transform chronic disease interventions in Africa through support, collaboration, innovation, advocacy, and research. It is the first telehealth solution in Nigeria that is targeted specifically for chronic disease care and prevention and has earned accolades e.g as one of the Top 5 Finalists of BeChangemaker Africa Accelerator 2022 from a pool of over 500 startups in Africa.

The mobile App offers free services such as support groups (with anonymity) to encourage knowledge-sharing and cater to the psychological wellbeings of those affected. Our users can enjoy flexible or subscription-based health plans with options for installment or advance payments.

• -This provides them access to a wide range of qualified healthcare professionals (physicians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, mental health counselors, nutritionists, etc) for online consultations and in-person visits depending on necessity and location.
• -We procure essential and cost-effective health products (such as self-care monitoring devices and medicines) with proper guidance on usage.
• -Users also get to benefit from a health data management portal that enables two-way entry of data (from the in-app health providers and the users). Here, they can record and track vital body parameters e.g blood pressure, blood sugar, sleep patterns, etc. They can also set calendar reminders for medical appointments and lifestyle actions e.g. exercising

The CHRONmate App is designed to fill the gaps in chronic disease prevention and care that are linked to inequitable access to basic healthcare. It augments other advocacy and research activities of our organization (CDMA).

Asides from the app users (patients), the app empowers health practitioners to cater to patients more effectively while they earn extra income. It helps them monitor the patients’ outcomes in a tech-enabled space that we provide.    

The App integrates already existing telehealth tools and software in a way that is customized to fulfill our purpose. These include mobile/web app tools, appointment scheduling software, audio & video conferencing, e-payment portals, secure file-sharing software, private server, health data storage, management and analytics, social interaction software – all tailored to be HIPAA compliant.

Users sign up for the App through a simple process. We also prioritize relationships with healthcare providers (HCPs) who are essential in providing care, validating the app, and recommending it to their patients and other HCPs. We also hinge on partnerships with other health institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and organizations. For some past projects, we partnered with Newheights Pharma (distributors of some antidiabetic and antihypertensive medicines and monitoring devices), NCD Alliance, Millenium Fellowship, COPA Eye Clinic, MEDGLOBE Initiative, Diabetes and Limb Salvage Foundation (DLSF) among others. In addition, we still maintain our local interventions such as rural medical outreaches, events, and campaigns in order to reach more potential app users.

CHRONmate aims to address some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including; SDG 3.4 (By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being) and SDG 3.8 (Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all).

CHRONmate serves chronic disease patients, their carers (e.g relatives), persons at risk, healthcare professionals as well as chronic disease advocates. It is indeed multifaceted.

There is a sizeable available market (SAM) of about 942 million people living with at least a chronic disease in Africa, of which 58 million are in Nigeria. This signifies a high market potential as well as validates the need for our solution.

For direct patients, CHRONmate plays the role of companion and reduces their physical, financial, and psychological stress, through our provision of long-term care and a support system. The app serves carers of elderly persons and children with chronic conditions, as it helps them manage the health of their loved ones more cost-effectively and over extended periods.

For persons at risk of developing chronic diseases (hereditary, habits, or other risk factors), we provide expert guidance towards prevention through modified lifestyle measures.

For advocates, we provide channels through which they can volunteer in humanitarian programs near them such as medical outreaches and campaigns, as well as participate in crowdfunding/donations for those in dire need of financial aid.

Lastly, we target healthcare practitioners in that they constitute our in-app medical team. The app empowers health practitioners to cater to patients more effectively while they earn extra income.

CHRONmate is a solution that is well fitted for all, regardless of age and financial status. We offer health plans that suit the pockets of our clients while we do the work of sourcing out cost-effective tools to best manage their health condition(s).

As we believe in concerted efforts and multifactorial approaches to addressing chronic diseases, we are built up by a multidisciplinary team from across Nigeria and West Africa. This comprises licensed medical professionals, social workers, legal practitioners, tech experts (programmers and developers), researchers, environmentalists, and a community of over 300 volunteers, to name a few.

Our organization and solution were founded upon several years of extensive research into the problem of chronic and non-communicable diseases. Since its inception in January 2020, our team has actively engaged in developmental research and executed 20+ community projects in 3 states in Nigeria, which has directly impacted over 2000 people ranging from children to the elderly.

These include free medical outreaches where beneficiaries undergo screening, access medical consultations, medications, and subsidized referrals to partner clinics. We have also engaged in the community, campaigns, and advocacy meetings. Through these platforms, we have been able to interact with government stakeholders, community leaders, health institutions, professionals as well as patients themselves who validated the need for our solution.

We are invested in continuous capacity building for our team members and volunteers through regular training centered around health, tech, business, people skills, and social impact – so as to ensure we are always well suited for the ever-changing landscape of healthcare.

Our work at CHRONmate has received recognition and support from the notable press (e.g. Vanguard) and accelerator programs such as Bechangemaker Africa 2021 (where we emerged as one of the Top 5 Finalists from a pool of over 500 startups in Africa) and earned marketing support worth 2000 Euros. As a Pharmacist and the Founder/ Product Lead of CHRONmate, I have earned global and local recognition for our work. I am a selected delegate for the One Young World Summit to be held in September this year, as one of AstraZeneca's Young Health Scholars. I have also served as ONE Champion in Nigeria since 2020, UN Millenium Fellow, LEAP AFRICA Youth Leadership Programme Fellow, among others. Our team members are also excelling in various fields and well representing our work towards realization and growth.

We conducted market surveys for CHRONmate for the period of September to December 2021 and received roughly 92% validation of the potential impact of our solution. We also created a sign-up portal on our website and had about 253 sign-ups. We are now working towards a bigger scale pre-launch by May 2022 and are currently pursuing funding and partnerships from donor partners, government, pharmaceutical companies, and health institutions.

Social entrepreneurship is a constantly evolving landscape as I have experienced and requires passion, commitment, and support. By applying into MIT SOLVE stemmed from my zeal to network, brainstorm, and learn from intellectuals of diverse racial, cultural, and professional backgrounds. I believe that MIT SOLVE is one of the pacemakers as far as technology startup acceleration and funding across the world is concerned. Thus, it is my earnest desire to be one of its thriving success stories in Africa, as I firmly believe that healthcare technology and our telehealth solution (CHRONmate), will impact millions of lives with clear, measurable, achievable, and realistic results.

Being part of MIT SOLVE will translate my philosophy of global citizenship into action due to the opportunity of projecting my local idea to a larger global audience for scalable impact. I am applying because of my organization’s commitment to expanding our network with great social entrepreneurs, tech experts, industry leaders, investors, potential partners, funders, mentors, and coaches.

As we work towards the next phase of piloting CHRONmate, we are in dire need of this opportunity more than ever. Getting access to funding, partnerships and resources are integral for us to create the best Application quality from skilled developers, secure a private server, access personalized programming, purchase paid tools and software, etc. We require support for this phase of marketing and promotions involving online advertisements, travels, conferences, events, among others. Funding will also empower us to cater for initial capital costs such as staff/volunteer stipends, centralized office location, equipment, and maintenance of the running of the App till we break even (projected for at least 6 months) We believe in the vision of MIT SOLVE and MIT as an institution that seeks to create a better world through education, research and innovation; and we believe in our abilities to be your impact channel, success story, and ambassadors

We are the first telehealth service that channels different approaches and existing technologies toward chronic disease interventions. We are leveraging one of the most individually owned possessions which is the smartphone as a means through which users can access not just quality health service but also health companionship – at their fingertips.

We operate a model that provides free (humanitarian) benefits such as support groups while offering paid benefits comprising long-term care, health products supply, and health records management systems – all in one space. Our app is designed to ensure ease of use, anonymity (when required), and 24/7 user support. We also leverage networks of already existing primary health centres, community pharmacies, etc as partners to serve as satellite channels to reach patients within their local communities.

At CHRONmate, we believe that reducing suffering and deaths from chronic diseases in low-resource regions like Nigeria and Africa requires systematic and multisectoral approaches that are cost-effective, feasible, accessible to the majority, and flexible. CHRONmate is a perfect fit for this.

In the next year, we have the following goals

• Provide quality long-term care for at least 10,000 app users with a 90% success rate of improved health and well-being.
• On-board a team of at least 100 licensed healthcare professionals into the in-app medical team
• Build a coherent online support community on 10 core disease areas including HIV/AIDS and Sickle Cell Anemia with at least 30,000 members and a 90% satisfaction review.
• Publish at least a research paper to augment data and promote other evidence-based interventions
• Host at least 2 major advocacy events     
• Impact additional 2000 beneficiaries of free community medical outreaches.
• Raise a capital of at least $20,000

In the next five years;

• Raise revenue of at least $2,000,000
• Provide quality long-term care for at least 100,000 app users with a 90% success rate of improved health and well-being.
• On-board a team of at least 2000 licensed healthcare professionals into the in-app medical team
• Build a coherent online support community on 10 core disease areas including HIV/AIDS and Sickle Cell Anemia with at least 1,000,000 members and a 90% satisfaction review.

We will be measuring our impact by using the following UN SDG indicators to evaluate our client base/subscribers;

• 3.4.1 – Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease
• 3.8.1 – Coverage of essential health services (defined as the average coverage of essential services based on tracer interventions that include non-communicable diseases and service capacity and access, among the general and the most disadvantaged population
• 3.8.2 – Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health as a share of total household expenditure or income

• 3.5.1 – Coverage of treatment interventions (pharmacological, psychosocial and rehabilitation, and aftercare services) for substance use disorders
• 3.5.2 – Harmful use of alcohol, defined according to the national context as alcohol per capita consumption (aged 15 years and older) within a calendar year in liters of pure alcohol.
• 3.a.1 – Age-standardized prevalence of current tobacco use among persons aged 15 years and older.

• We believe that reducing chronic disease suffering and deaths in less developed regions like Africa requires systemic, systematics, and multifactorial approaches that are cost-effective, feasible, and scalable.
• We aim to achieve this using the mobile application as a channel to provide the following outputs

i. Long-term medical consultations

ii. Support groups

iii. Supply of essential health products

iv. Health records management and tracking

v. Humanitarian/advocacy opportunities e.g outreaches, donations, campaigns, etc

• These achieve the outcomes of;

i. Enhanced knowledge and consciousness of the need for chronic disease prevention and proper management

ii. Reduced healthcare spending

iii. Improved psychological wellbeing of chronic disease patients and caregivers

iv. Improved health outcomes and quality of life

v. Improved multi-stakeholder commitments towards chronic disease intervention

vi.  Improved productivity

• These outcomes then create a lasting impact of the improved healthcare system, universal health coverage in the country, as well as economic growth and capital formation

The App integrates already existing telehealth tools and software in a way that is customized to fulfill our purpose. These include mobile/web app tools, appointment scheduling software, audio & video conferencing, e-payment portals, secure file-sharing software, private server, health data storage, management and analytics, social interaction software – all tailored to be HIPAA compliant.

We uphold diversity, equity and inclusion in our leadership team as well as staff and volunteers. The constitution of our organization is designed to rule against any sort of discrimination or favouritism as regards gender, ethnicity, income, professional background, age, national origin, political views, race, marital status among others.

We give equal opportunities and advancement to all members of our group.

We operate an impact and commerce-driven business model which is B2C (Business to Consumer).

Our revenue streams include;

• App Subscriptions and consultations payments
• Product sales
• Donations/grants
• Sales of merchandise
• Registration fees for events, etc

These are channeled into

1. Free services such as

• Support groups
• Community outreaches
• Advocacy/campaigns

2. Fixed & operational costs such as

• Staff payments
• Volunteer compensations
• Logistics costs
• Marketing/promotions
• Quality improvement & App maintenance

We plan to ensure sustainability through revenue from our paid services as well as products sales. We also hinge on partnerships that will help offset extra costs. Also, other activities such as training, events, consultancy embarked on by the umbrella organization (Chronic Disease Mate for Africa) are important channels of raising funds through charged fees. We also prioritize our client satisfaction as this would encourage referrals

• we have received a marketing support worth 2000 euros from BeChangemaker Africa Accelerator Program 2021
• we have raised funds for our previous projects worth $1500 through donations