SmartSANTÉ

With just 3 doctors per 10,000 people, healthcare system in Haiti is far from the WHO recommended ratio 1:1,000. This situation leaves more than 70% of the population with nearly no access to primary health care. In remote areas, common conditions such as respiratory infections and renal failure often go undiagnosed or mishandled especially in children. The sporadic mobile clinic or health missions are exceedingly insufficient compared to the needs.

In this context, the key challenge SMARTSANTÉ aims to tackle is healthcare service coverage particularly in remote areas. 

The healthcare system in Haiti leaves more than 7.7 millions Haitians with nearly no access to primary health care. In remote areas, people - especially children - die from common conditions because of misdiagnosis or lack of appropriate treatment. The remote areas receive sporadic mobile clinics or health missions that are far from meeting the population needs. Lack of laboratory coverage is another key problem for accurate diagnosis and cure due to the long distance people have to walk in order to have access to labs and given the delays caused in sample transportation from remote clinics to testing centers.

Meanwhile, several doctors in the local communities and in the diaspora are willing to offer their expertise but there is a lack of structure to enable a linkage between them and the vulnerable population. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global disruption causing drastic decisions such as movement restrictions. Physical distancing has become a norm, the demand for adapted solutions is increasing and SMARTSANTÉ is an answer.

This project can be replicated and implemented anywhere in the world living the same problems Haiti faces.

The SMARTSANTÉ project comes as the bridge connecting patients from Haiti’s remote areas to doctors and laboratory services.

The SMARTSANTÉ project is designed to improve medical coverage and primary health services in rural Haiti and the developing world through a new service delivery model based on mobile technologies and telemedicine. The model will utilize mobile technologies, a cloud based electronic health record platform, and online health service delivery. This effort is supported by drone transportation for delivery of samples and health supplies and consumables.

 The SMARTSANTÉ project intends to :

• Improve health coverage. The SMARTCLINIQ/SMARTHOPITAL telemedicine platform aims to connect patients in the remote areas with Haitian doctors in Haiti and in the diaspora eager to help their fellow citizens.
• Ensure EHR’s portability. The platform also includes an electronic patient records management system that enables records’ secure portability to have patient’s medical history at hand;
• Bridge the gap of lab testing divide. The project intends to provide drone pick-up and transportation for samples to participating health centers with no lab to hospitals equipped with laboratories (SMARTDELIVERY)

Increase availability of medical supplies and medicines. The drones should also enable transportation of essential medicine, protective equipment and medical supplies to remote areas

In its first stage, the project aims at serving the underserved population in the remote communities in Haiti in priority. This population constitutes the of potential users of SMARTSANTÉ. It represents a population of 7.7 million people. The project has the potential to serve potentially anyone anywhere by improving medical coverage both in availability and in quality.

Now, the SMARTCLINIQ platform is being tested by 10 clinics involving 19 doctors and serving around 50,000 people. The SMARTPHARMA and SMARTLABO modules are being finalized. 

The project is therefore entering its pilot phase for the next year or so. At that point we ambition to serve 20 public health centers and 80 private clinics and health facilities from three regions. Those 100 clients will enable SMARTSANTÉ to touch the lives of nearly 280,000 people in the targeted population among which 29% are children and women are a clear focus also.

The SMARTSANTÉ team is a promise to success!

The firm relies on its highly qualified multidisciplinary leadership team comprised of  an ICT4D Expert, a Data Science Specialist and a Business Development Executive to draw the route.

 1. Carl Sherson CLERMONT, President and CEO, IC4TD Expert, https://www.linkedin.com/in/csclermont/
Carl is responsible for driving the firm's long-term vision for technological projects; he also guides innovation both within the company and at the level of projects developed with partners. The vision Carl imprints is the result of proven experience in many facets of ICT for Development (ICT4D) both nationally and internationally over the past 19 years.

2. Camoens RENE, Vice-President responsible for Data Science https://www.linkedin.com/in/camoens-ren%C3%A9-5b69621/
Camoens has two master's degrees, one in program evaluation and one in statistics from the National School of Public Administration of Quebec (ENAP) and the University of Paris Dauphine respectively. Specialization in "Program Evaluation", of, he masters the methodological approaches of evaluation, in particular the preparation of evaluation estimates. With a master's degree in Forecasting and Modeling Method, he has a solid foundation in data analysis.
In addition to his experiences as an evaluation specialist, he also worked as a statistician, and thus acquired a solid knowledge in the design of data collection tools and methodologies for conducting studies.

3. Rose Michèle G. CLERMONT, Vice-President for Business Development https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemgclermont

Senior executive-level consultant with proven expertise and experience in business management, Rose Michèle Guillaume Clermont is one of the co-founders of CompuConsult. Vice-President for Business Development, she is currently Secretary of the Board of Directors.
With a Masters in Strategic Management from Indiana University, Rose Michèle is passionate about strategic planning and organizational development. Her work as a consultant in business diagnosis and strategic planning for Haitian SMEs allowed Ms. Clermont to have a good knowledge of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and business leaders and to develop mechanisms adapted to their reality.
Rose Michèle is also a professor of Strategy and Business Policy at Quisquéya University.

The project team includes a senior-level product owner leading a talented and passionated crew of developers, an experienced project manager and a team of two Public Health Experts. All facets of the project are covered, we are bound to succeed! 

We strongly believe that applying SOLVE can be a springboard for our solution to thrive. We want to be a Solver team for all the monetary and/or non-monetary support we expect to get from this process.

We do need a seed money to implement the rural outreach we are longing for with this project. Moreover, being part of the Solvers' network will also unlock access to advices, partnerships, and mentorships to help us reach our goals in term of national and international development.

The SMARTSANTÉ is an innovative solution to the healthcare coverage shortage it intends to tackle.

The main purpose of the project is to extend medical coverage by using the technology means. By enhancing the availability of physicians to attend patients in the remote areas on a regular basis and by enabling doctors located outside of Haiti, accredited by Ministry of Health, to also serve the community, the project will certainly contribute to getting the country closer to doctor-population ratio WHO recommends.

SMARTSANTÉ will increase physicians availability both in quantity and in quality. In general, the specialists and the best medical experts are in the big cities, that leaves rural communities with almost no access to the best doctors. By deploying this telemedicine solution, the project will enable the remote areas targeted to have access to the best specialists in the country and in the diaspora.

The project plans to introduce an electronic health record that will help to improve follow-up and ensure that patient data are portable among the participating centers.

With the drone-based transportation system included in SMARTSANTÉ,  the lab tests handled easier and faster. This will imply a significant improvement in completeness for healthcare.

The goal for the first year is to successfully conduct the pilot phase in 3 regions in Haiti. After being proven a working solution, the next step is country wide adoption. At this point, the SMARTSANTÉ project should have reached sustainability from year 2 on. Within 5 years, the project should be successfully established in Haiti and replicated in other countries.

The project anticipates identified barriers to its implementation and growth in the rural areas such as resistance to change, lack of electric power and poor adoption by the population. Introducing tele-health in remote areas of the country will certainly come as a meaningful change in the practice of medicine in those areas. In the remote areas, access to electricity is still a struggle. The project implies power solutions using clean renewable resources of energy (Solar).

It will be a new paradigm both for the patients and the healthcare professionals. Acceptance from both sides will be a challenge.

Mitigation measures include educating and engaging both the personnel and the patients, supply of a renewable energy system and marketing. This project ambitions to really make a notable difference in healthcare service in Haiti and other regions of the world where it would be applied. The project will leverage the existing healthcare facilities and coordinate efforts with public health authorities for all structural means and medical supplies needed to ensure the success of the tele-health initiative. Moreover, just as it is necessary for the clinicians, patients will have to be educated on the benefits of telemedicine and on how to use the technology in that context. The project is based on a complete and highly responsive approach. One of the key success factors of this project is the fact of being holistic. The health centers that will participate in the project will be offered a complete solution including technology equipment, energy, and training. 

This project has the capacity to be a game changer in the healthcare service delivery in Haiti. The pilot phase is key to prove that the concept can meet the established objectives. The pilot phase should showcase measurable indicators in term of:

i. a positive impact on healthcare coverage and outreach.

• Number of healthcare centers participating

• Number of lives touched

• Number of medical associations and experts reached

• Number of medical visits per capita in the communities

• Number of requests

ii. an enhancement in the healthcare quality available to the targeted communities.

• Number of specialists participating

• Number of consultations involving a specialist

• Adoption by the public sector

iii. a historic of treatments for the patients through an electronic record; an improvement in the availability healthcare support system, namely lab testing.

• Number of people using this system

• Number of doctors using the system

• Increase in consultations in the regions 

• The amount of data collected

The project ambitions to become a key partner for all healthcare initiative that target the remote areas in Haiti.

This project has the capacity to be a game changer in the healthcare service delivery in Haiti. The pilot phase is key to prove that the concept can meet the established objectives. The pilot phase should showcase :

o   a positive impact on healthcare coverage and outreach;

o   an enhancement in the healthcare quality available to the targeted communities;

o   a historic of treatments for the patients through an electronic record; an improvement in the availability healthcare support system, namely lab testing.

One of the key word for adoption is EDUCATION both for patients and healthcare professionals.

To power our solution  we use at its very core : mobile technologies, a cloud based electronic health record platform, and online health service delivery. This effort is supported by drone transportation and delivery of samples and health supplies and consumables.

• Mobile application for patients
• Web-based  application for Health Centers and Doctors
• A cloud based  electronic health record platform
• The internet as medium for remote services
• Drone and geolocation for sample and supplies delivery

At CompuConsult we cultivate essential values which motivate our actions and our choices. They include diversity, equity and inclusion; our company's leadership is 30% women. We welcome talents from a large and diverse background and are committed to working with vulnerable communities.  

Also we believe that:
✓ Integrity and honesty must guide all phases of the client and consultant relationship, from the exploration meeting to the final delivery.
✓ Excellence is the hallmark of all our business associations with our suppliers, our independent consultants and especially with our clients.
✓ Our expertise ensures our clients the achievement of effective results and personalized solutions.
✓ Our work must go through the implementation of ecological solutions.
✓ Gender equality and the motivation of young professionals help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The business model is based on a B2B system where our direct clients are institutions or health practitioners. However, by the adoption of our services by these clients, the end results are beneficial to tens of thousands of individuals that are patients at these clinics and other health institutions. Indeed, our services will enable individuals to have access to health services that would otherwise be out of their reach.

Our value proposition includes:

• Telemedicine platform to serve public and private clinics and hospitals and enable them to serve populations in remote areas and provide the expertise of practitioners that become available from a distance through:
  • Private clinics, hospitals, and Sole practice
  • Public health facilities
  • NGO funded health dispensaries
• Medical Labs that become accessible via pick-up and delivery of samples and results in remote areas and are also listed and searchable on an online platform
  • Labs near you
  • Mobile and online lab test result system

• Pharmacies made accessible
  • Pharma near you
  • Receive quote requests, check availability, provide quote and buy/sell online
• Drone transportation services for medicine, lab samples and other hospital needs where distance is a challenge and regular means of transportation are unavailable or ineffective

These services of SMARTSANTÉ will address an acute need. Although healthcare is a basic need and it is not available for almost 7 million people in Haiti right now.

 The efficacy of telemedicine has already been proven, it will be particularly useful during the pandemic and beyond. This project will also tackle other hurdles to healthcare coverage and service provision by bridging the gap with drone transportation. Picking up the samples to the closest lab or delivering medical supplies and medicine will fill a breach.  This project's ambition is to really make a meaningful difference in healthcare service in Haiti and other regions of the world where it would be applied.

More than 70% of the Haitian population has nearly no access to primary healthcare. This population constitutes the of potential users of SMARTSANTÉ. It represents a population of 7.7 million people.
The analysis of the budget allocated to health shows a low level of funding of about 5.7% of GDP spent on health for the 2005-06 fiscal year. The government’s expenditures in public health is thirty-two US dollars (32 USD) per year spent per capita (MSPP, 2009). That makes it a market of $246,400,000.00 from the government part. Meanwhile the total expenditure on health per capita is $131.00 USD (WHO, 2014) that makes it a potential market of $1,441,000,000.00 of which SMARTSANTÉ can claim a share of 1% on year 2 and a projected 4% on year 3.

We will get these amounts from service to public and private healthcare operators as well as NGOs. OPEX should not exceed 80% of revenues from our operations. 

Being in a Pilot phase, there hasn't yet been materialized proof of financial sustainability of SMARTSANTÉ. However, the level of adoption and willingness of doctors and health institutions to use our services once they become readily available garanties the anticipated level of revenue.