afifa care - Saving Lives

My five year old sister died in front of my eyes and I could not do anything. This is because of that quack doctor, who had assured us for treatment. We are not alone in this case, but due to non accessibility to public health care and low quality of health care services, a majority of people in India  turn to the quack doctor as their first choice of care. If we look at the health landscape of India, 80 percent of health care visits are to quack doctors in the rural population. However, quack doctors are unqualified, unskilled and expensive. So we started afifa care - “saving lives”,  to bring the qualified and trusted healthcare giver, so that one's life can be saved, 

Due to rural settings, lack of transport, a lack of mobility, conditions because of outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, decreased funding and a lack of quality healthcare professionals, more than 800 million of India are facing healthcare challenges, where we intervene to solve. 

Rising costs, increases in chronic diseases, geographic dispersion of families, growing healthcare provider shortages, ethnic disparities in care, better survival rates among patients fighting serious diseases, lack of digital health accessibility and usability, is another challenge in developing countries like India, where we focused to combat these challenges.

To control the spread of diseases and reduce the growing rates of mortality due to lack of adequate health facilities, special attention needs to be given to the health care in rural areas, where we focused. Our Service is to address the key challenges in the healthcare sector such as  low quality of care, poor accountability, lack of awareness, and limited access to facilities.

Commissions for referrals (colloquially called “cuts” or “kickbacks”) are a longstanding and widespread practice in Indian healthcare. They are now so much a part of mainstream healthcare, that most doctors have accepted them as a natural accompaniment to patient referrals. What began decades ago as an incentive fee for general practitioners to refer patients to specialists, now includes kickbacks from pathology and radiology establishments. Even large hospitals “officially” pay physicians in India and abroad “facilitation charges” for referring patients to them. Our services are customer centric which removes cut practice.

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market ranked only behind China. By 2021, there will be about 700 million internet users in the country. With such a huge internet penetration, Digital literacy has become the core part of almost everyone. Almost 20-25% of the population is illiterate and as far as digital literacy in the country is concerned, almost 90% of the population is digitally illiterate. Where telehealth is a biggest challenge for them, we solve these problems by serving via our nursing staff.

So those who traditionally suffer from lack of access to health care, can get accessible, affordable, reliable and high-quality health care services at their doorstep.

afifa care uses Information and communication technologies (ICTs) to overcome geographical barriers, and increase access to health care services. This is particularly beneficial for rural and underserved communities in developing countries like India – groups that traditionally suffer from lack of access to health care.

In rural settings, where there is lack of transport, lack of mobility, and people with less funding and looking for quality healthcare services, at there place we appoint a local nursing staff, who care for patients via afifa care services as well as removing digital divide in telehealth care as

1. Connecting with caregivers 24/7 for online consultation with prominent doctors in real time, 

2. Bringing range of diagnostic services, where patient can compare prices and select a lab of their choice and 

3. Order medicines and health products at a discount, which get delivered at the patient's door steps.

The afifa care is just like a telehealth care marketplace, where we bring trusted lab and quality health care professionals at affordable rates, so that accessible, affordable, reliable and high-quality health care services will reach the unreached. 

Bringing the tools of artificial intelligence & machine learning for second opinion & syndromic surveillance; and building a telehealth care marketplace of best caregivers, so that care comes from qualified professionals rather than quack doctors as one’s first choice of care.

afifa care will use machine learning technology to power the symptom-checker chatbot, SelfCare. The platform will run online and on mobile phones as a chatbot or voice-based application. It will assess the user’s health status and based on the symptoms, it will set up a possible diagnosis and give actionable recommendations.

Syndromic surveillance will be the near real-time collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health-related data that will enable early identification of the impact (or absence of impact) of human public health threats that will require effective public health action. Syndromic surveillance will rely on clinical signs, epidemiologic trends, and proxy measures (eg, absenteeism, drug sales, doctor visits) that will create a provisional diagnosis, or syndrome. As part of the global infrastructure, syndromic surveillance will become a way to monitor disease, respond quickly, and allocate resources to minimize potential outbreaks.

Other than providing telehealth care service only for digitally enabled people, we are caring for patients via local nursing staff at rural individuals and underserved communities, which brings various uniqueness as follows -

Rural Health Concerns -

Healthcare is the right of every individual but lack of quality infrastructure, dearth of qualified medical functionaries, and non- access to basic medicines and medical facilities thwarts its reach to 60% of the population in India. A majority of 800 million people live in rural areas where the condition of medical facilities is deplorable. Considering the picture of grim facts there is a dire need of new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. We provide cutting- edge ICTs solutions to combat the health challenge in rural settings.

Nursing at Home

When rural settings, lack of transport, digitally unskilled, a lack of mobility, decreased funding, and a lack of staff restrict access to care, our nursing staff may bridge the gap. Healing in the comfort of one's own home with the complete care and attention of loved ones is something that all of us look forward to. Giving primary consultation, emergency care and  continued treatment at home to rural individuals is challenging, even via telehealth. We bring experienced and certified nurses who visit patient's homes for all procedures such as injections, infusions, wound dressing, catheterization, vital checks, vaccinations, etc. ensuring the highest quality of treatment via our telehealth care marketplace at home.

Digital  Literacy -

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market ranked only behind China. By 2021, there will be about 700 million internet users in the country. With such a huge internet penetration, Digital literacy has become the core part of almost everyone. Almost 20-25% of the population is illiterate and as far as digital literacy in the country is concerned, almost 90% of the population is digitally illiterate. Where telehealth is a biggest challenge for them, we solve these problems by serving via our nursing staff.

Language Barriers  -

In spite of a growing recognition of the importance of doctor–patient communication, the issue of language barriers to healthcare has received very little attention in India. The Indian population speaks over 22 major languages with English used as the lingua franca for biomedicine. Research done predominantly in the West has shown language discordance to significantly affect access to care, cause problems of comprehension and adherence, and decrease the satisfaction and quality of care. We hire our nurses from local communities who help to address language barriers.

Cultural Diversity -

Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent. To better understand the cultural diversity, we hire staff from their community to serve them.

Helps Vulnerable Patients -

There are millions of vulnerable seniors and physically less able people who can’t leave the house. These people need to see doctors just like everyone else. With our services, the doors are now open, granting them access to healthcare professionals and providing potentially life-saving consultations, prescriptions and treatments.

Home Care -

One of the most distinctive applications is home care. For example, patients who are immobilized, or live in remote or difficult to reach places, citizens who have chronic ailments, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, congestive heart disease, or debilitating diseases, such as neural degenerative diseases, may stay at home and be "visited" and assisted regularly via our nurse. Other applications of home care are the care of patients in immediate post-surgical situations, the care of wounds, ostomies or disabled individuals. 

The role of infection control in a healthcare setting has never been more important. But during the period of the COVID19 pandemic, preventing the spreading of a virus was one of the biggest challenges. We facilitate contact-free consultations, which means doctors don’t need to place themselves or other people at risk. If a patient falls ill, a virtual appointment can provide advice, test appointments and a prescription, if needed.

It makes life easier -

Add the inherent complexities of a busy life to that distance, never mind mobility problems or lack of access to cars or public transportation, and healthcare access becomes a serious problem. We are providing solutions for patients in such areas.

It’s more affordable -

Our services are typically a cheaper alternative compared to the traditional market, and so inherently more accessible for patients on a budget, even those with health insurance.

It’s more convenient -

Our service is more convenient for healthcare professionals and patients alike. It eliminates packed waiting rooms and long waits; patients can get care in the comfort of their homes and venture to a physical location only when they need testing or other procedures that require face-to-face interaction. Healthcare providers, meanwhile, can provide diagnostic and consultation services on their own time. This means they don’t need to skip work because they are isolating due to an exposure risk, say, or because of transport issues.

Rural migrant -

Most young people of rural settings migrate and live miles away from their families, when they left behind elder people and women. And this person needs care most, which is tackled by our nursing staff.

Healthcare price discrimination with illiterate person -

Actual cost of healthcare services such as caregivers, diagnostic tests and medicines price is not high; but business leaders sell these at a high rate due to providing a fixed cut to a broker. But now various ehealth providers removed these brokerage fees by providing offers directly to the customers. But these are not benefiting digitally disabled people, who are poor and illiterate. At afifa care we are removing these barriers too through our local nurse as a key assistant for the most vulnerable, and providing low cost and high quality care.

We are serving via accessible, affordable, reliable and high-quality health care services at Indian rural’s doorstep via local nurses. Our target population will be following - 

1. Rural settings, lack of transport, lack of mobility, conditions because of outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics, decreased funding and lack of quality healthcare professionals for them.

2. Non accessibility to public health care and low quality of health care services, who turned to the quack doctor as their first choice of care.

3. Lack of digital health accessibility and usability.

4. Language barriers, while communicating with caregivers.

5. Vulnerable seniors and physically less able people.

6. Cultural diversity, traditional customs and belief systems 

We address the rural healthcare challenge of India via afifa care’s innovative solution as - 

1. We provide cutting- edge ICTs solutions to combat the health challenge in rural settings. 

2. We bring experienced and certified nurses who visit patient's homes for all procedures such as injections, infusions, wound dressing, catheterisation, vital checks, vaccinations, etc. ensuring the highest quality of treatment via our telehealthcare marketplace at home.

3. For digitally disabled people, telehealth is a biggest challenge for them, we solve these problems by serving via our nursing staff. 

4. To better understand the cultural diversity, we hire staff from their community to serve them.

5. At afifa care we are removing caregiver’s commissions for referral, so that care can be received at minimum cost.

6. Emergency and trauma health care can be achieved round the clock. 

7. We care for patients in immediate post-surgical situations, the care of wounds, ostomies or disabled individuals.

In the year of 2016, We founded the afifa foundation, which is a non governmental, non profitable & non political organization with the prime objective to save lives, defeat poverty & achieve social justice; through the tools of science, technology and innovation, so that poverty is eradicated and all people live with dignity and security. The afifa foundation is continuously working for eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world. 

We also developed a consortium of grassroots developmental organizations , educational and research  institutions, social scientists & workers and social entrepreneurs, which is an initiative of Vijnana Bharati. It is envisaged to develop into the largest people’s movement of science oriented social organizations and institutions for Nation building, through “scientific interventions in social actions for Transforming India”. This is an umbrella organization of more than 1000 credible nongovernmental organizations spread across 20 states of India.

During the period of COVID-19, afifa foundation and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh (One of the top healthcare institute of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India) completed a joint Tele-Consultation project. Tele-Consultation was a relief program for public mental health and psychological crisis during COVID-19 pandemic. Within three month we cared for more than 10,000 individuals through this project. AIIMS Rishikesh key agency for afifa care advocacy, and committed to deliver expertise, experience and support for design, implement and advance this project.

Our previous experience, collaboration with healthcare institutions and strength of associated partners, to reach 20 states of India give us confidence to design and implement afifa care. 

As we are addressing the world’s most pressing problems, that is healthcare of the most vulnerable, which is a right of every global citizen. To drive transformational change around the world is not easy, but it can be easy with the support of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this we believe and it’s a fact. So with great hope we applied Solve, for advancing our solutions and to scale our impact. We would like to bring our solution to every corner of the world.

Other than providing telehealth care service only for digitally enabled people, we are caring for patients via our nursing staff at rural individuals and underserved communities, which brings various uniqueness as follows - 

Rural Health Concerns - 

Healthcare is the right of every individual but lack of quality infrastructure, dearth of qualified medical functionaries, and non- access to basic medicines and medical facilities thwarts its reach to 60% of the population in India. A majority of 800 million people live in rural areas where the condition of medical facilities is deplorable. Considering the picture of grim facts there is a dire need of new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. We provide cutting- edge ICTs solutions to combat the health challenge in rural settings. 

Nursing at Home

When rural settings, lack of transport, digitally unskilled, a lack of mobility, decreased funding, and a lack of staff restrict access to care, our nursing staff may bridge the gap. Healing in the comfort of one's own home with the complete care and attention of loved ones is something that all of us look forward to. Giving primary consultation, emergency care and  continued treatment at home to rural individuals is challenging, even via telehealth. We bring experienced and certified nurses who visit patient's homes for all procedures such as injections, infusions, wound dressing, catheterisation, vital checks, vaccinations, etc. ensuring the highest quality of treatment via our telehealthcare marketplace at home.

Digital  Literacy -

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market ranked only behind China. By 2021, there will be about 700 million internet users in the country. With such a huge internet penetration, Digital literacy has become the core part of almost everyone. Almost 20-25% population is illiterate and as far as digital literacy in the country is concerned, almost 90% of the population is digitally illiterate. Where telehealth is a biggest challenge for them, we solve these problems by serving via our nursing staff. 

Language Barriers  - 

In spite of a growing recognition of the importance of doctor–patient communication, the issue of language barriers to healthcare has received very little attention in India. The Indian population speaks over 22 major languages with English used as the lingua franca for biomedicine. Research done predominantly in the West has shown language discordance to significantly affect access to care, cause problems of comprehension and adherence, and decrease the satisfaction and quality of care. We hire our nurses from local communities who help to address language barriers.

Cultural Diversity -

Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent. To better understand the cultural diversity, we hire staff from their community to serve them.

Helps Vulnerable Patients - 

There are millions of vulnerable seniors and physically less able people who can’t leave the house. These people need to see doctors just like everyone else. With our services, the doors are now open, granting them access to healthcare professionals and providing potentially life-saving consultations, prescriptions and treatments.

Home Care - 

One of the most distinctive applications is home care. For example, patients who are immobilized, or live in remote or difficult to reach places, citizens who have chronic ailments, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, congestive heart disease, or debilitating diseases, such as neural degenerative diseases, may stay at home and be "visited" and assisted regularly via our nurse. Other applications of home care are the care of patients in immediate post-surgical situations, the care of wounds, ostomies or disabled individuals.

The role of infection control in a healthcare setting has never been more important. But during the period of the COVID19 pandemic, preventing the spreading of a virus was one of the biggest challenges. We facilitate contact-free consultations, which means doctors don’t need to place themselves or other people at risk. If a patient falls ill, a virtual appointment can provide advice, test appointments and a prescription, if needed.

It makes life easier - 

Add the inherent complexities of a busy life to that distance, never mind mobility problems or lack of access to cars or public transportation, and healthcare access becomes a serious problem. We are providing solutions for patients in such areas.

It’s more affordable - 

Our services are typically a cheaper alternative compared to the traditional market, and so inherently more accessible for patients on a budget, even those with health insurance.

It’s more convenient - 

Our service is more convenient for healthcare professionals and patients alike. It eliminates packed waiting rooms and long waits; patients can get care in the comfort of their homes and venture to a physical location only when they need testing or other procedures that require face-to-face interaction. Healthcare providers, meanwhile, can provide diagnostic and consultation services on their own time. This means they don’t need to skip work because they are isolating due to an exposure risk, say, or because of transport issues.

Rural migrant - 

Most young people of rural settings migrate and live miles away from their families, when they left behind elder people and women. And this person needs care most, which is tackled by our nursing staff.

Around 800 million people live in rural areas of India and 3.42 billion live in rural areas globally. We intervened to care for their health. We set our goal to reach 1 million people in India next year and 10 million people in the five next year globally. But this goal will be more if we receive the support of MIT Solve.

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Impact of our solution will be as follow -

1. afifa care solutions can directly or indirectly support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 5, 10, 12 and 13.  

1. Connecting digital health and environmental sustainability, particularly in the context of electronic health records (EHRs), can lead to significant indirect environmental benefits which would otherwise be hard to achieve. 

1. Smartphone and AI based solutions can help democratize access to medical expertise in developing countries, empower women and reduce child mortality. 

1. Taking the sustainability potential of afifa care solutions seriously is not only an ethical imperative, but can also result in new business opportunities in rapidly growing emerging markets as well as the potential to reduce costs and pre-empt future regulation.  

1. To maximize the potential of digital healthcare to help implement the SDGs, we  include the SDGs into their long-term business strategy and product designers need to adopt a triple bottom line approach and follow specific design principles. 

If your health is cared by one of the best caregivers of America at the same cost as you are paying to a less skilled caregiver here in India. Definitely you will prefer the best caregiver of America. This is our theory of change, for which we are working. We are living in an era of science and technology, where every day transforms with new innovation. Bridging the gap of reach to unreached and other barriers of access, we are making a global marketplace of healthcare, which will be accessible, affordable, reliable and high-quality health services to serve everyone, everywhere.

Team of afifa care is also working to develop Artificial intelligence (AI) based Second Opinion & Syndromic Surveillance, SelfCare.

afifa care will use artificial intelligence and machine learning for second opinion & syndromic surveillance for international health.

The symptom checkers of afifa care will tackle the problem of inappropriate use of medical services and misdiagnosis, by quack doctors, private doctors, and hospitals, through a set of advanced diagnosis and triage tools. 

The afifa care has a team of  engineers, scientists, and doctors, who will develop a diagnostic engine to collect intake data, check symptoms, and guide patients to the right care. The technology can also detect emergencies and support healthcare professionals by giving them early access to health information and recommendations.

The broader goal is to improve customers’ performance, increase healthcare accessibility, and reduce costs. 

The afifa care will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess symptoms and find patterns in data. Additionally, the team of physicians will verifies frequently use piece of information that are added to the medical database to ensure that patients get safe and reliable recommendations and to find rising diseases in a particular area. 

The afifa care’s core product will be the symptom checker, which allows patients to take part in a preliminary diagnostic interview. The AI suggests the most suitable action to take in a given case. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, the recommendation might be to see or call a doctor, self-care treatment, or a visit to an emergency department. The afifa care will assist patients in making the best decisions regarding their symptoms, and at the same time allows patients to save money by making sure patients use the right services to treat their health issues.