HealthDisk

HealthDisk is a free, simple, secure, and intuitive cloud-based EHR infrastructure designed to serve pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children in Africa's public and private health facilities.

Maternal mortality in Nigeria is the third highest in the continent and is among the worst in the world, with 19% of global maternal deaths occurring in the country. Additionally, the infant mortality rate is far too high at 19 deaths per 1,000 births, and the mortality rate of children under 5 is 128 per 1,000. Life expectancy in Nigeria is an incredibly low 54.4 years, indicating a need for improved healthcare infrastructure.

The method of documentation in Nigerian public healthcare facilities is one of the main obstacles to increased access and quality of care. Paper-based records are susceptible to physical damage and wear, making it difficult to find up-to-date patient records in cases of emergency. Moreover, paper occupies more space and makes it more expensive to maintain. These physical records prove to be inefficient and are not easily accessible by different medical facilities when urgently needed.

Existing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in Nigeria are localized and not widely used by the public sector. Integrating these systems is expensive and their software is clunky and has a poor architecture, which does not use industry-standard web protocols and frameworks. Furthermore, patients and medical practitioners cannot access EHRs on their mobile devices, which is the predominant way of connecting to the web in West Africa.

Currently, 40 million women of childbearing age (between 15 and 49 years of age) in Nigeria suffer from disproportionate health issues surrounding birth. Despite only representing 2.4% of the world's population, Nigeria contributes 10% of global deaths for pregnant mothers. The latest figures show a maternal mortality rate of 576 per 100,000 live births and an infant mortality rate of 69 per 1,000 live births. Unfortunately, more than half of the under-five deaths – 64 percent – are due to malaria, pneumonia, or diarrhea.

In recent years, significant investments have been made in the healthcare sector, yet many patients still cannot access appropriate treatments. Healthdisk hopes to bring positive change to the healthcare system in Nigeria by providing an efficient and easily accessible EHR system that patients and medical practitioners can access on their mobile devices. This will make healthcare information readily available, allowing for the quick and effective delivery of medical services.

Healthdisk is a cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) that is designed to help with the documentation process in Nigerian healthcare facilities. Moving from the paper record and ineffective EHR currently used, Healthd=Disk is an initiative that is beneficial and easier to use for all users.

On this software, the cloud-based memory allows for each patient's information to be automatically synced with each appointment, making all the medications prescribed and previous conditions readily available. This will make Healthdisk a reliable source of medical history and it will help doctors better understand who they are dealing with. 

The lab test and reports recorded will help reduce the cost of repeated laboratory tests asked by each facility as it is easily accessible and not prone to physical disposal. Also, Insurance, encounters, and emergency contacts are readily available to provide more information about the patient in case of a crisis. 

This initiative would also help to save time used to identify patients with the use of a unique QR code that would be assigned. Other assessment methods include the use of  National Identification Number (NIN) and biometrics (fingerprints).

The technologies used in HealthDisk include Webflow for the front end and cloud services like Azure and Amazon Web services for hosting. However, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is built using Airtable for managing medical data, Carrd for developing the website, and Glide for syncing all parts of the application software. 

Overall, Healthdisk will help increase the doctor-patient interaction and reduce the mortality rate caused by the lack of information about the patient.

Healthdisk is a revolutionary project designed to reduce the financial gap between patients and provide state-of-the-art healthcare facilities for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children. By providing digital access to health records and prescriptions, Healthdisk aims to improve the efficiency of healthcare services and reduce the amount of money spent on drugs. Once brand loyalty and recognition have been gotten along with massive adoption, other patient categories would be subsequently included in HealthDisk.

Overall, 88% of respondents or members of their households accessed some form of health care. 53% utilized a public hospital and 34% used a private hospital for medical services. 50% visited a pharmacist or chemist for a health care need. Public hospitals are mostly frequented as a result of subsidized healthcare fees. However, public hospitals are not well funded and do not have as many modernized facilities as the private sectors do. The users of these sectors are also separated by a financial gap leading to inequality in healthcare services. The use of Healthdisk would be able to reduce this enormous gap as it would be available for free to public facilities.

In addition, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children are currently underserved as they are not highly focused on by the government and various Non-governmental Organizations. In Nigeria, 40 million women of childbearing age (between 15 and 49 years of age) suffer a disproportionately high level of health issues surrounding birth. While the country represents 2.4 percent of the world’s population, it currently contributes 10 percent of global deaths for pregnant mothers. The latest figures show a maternal mortality rate of 576 per 100,000 live births, the fourth highest on Earth. Each year approximately 262,000 babies die at birth, the world’s second-highest national total. Infant mortality currently stands at 69 per 1,000 live births while for under-fives it rises to 128 per 1,000 live births. 

The use of Healthdisk will help improve health care as the necessary information lacking would be available. Pregnant women in Nigeria would be highly targeted as they would receive reminders about appointments and what they need to do throughout their pregnancy. In addition, the software would provide access to a wide range of drug options, giving patients the freedom to choose the most affordable and effective treatment.

Ultimately, Healthdisk seeks to empower the underserved population of pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children, and to close the financial gap that exists between them and other patients. By providing access to high-quality and affordable healthcare, Healthdisk strives to create a better world for those who need it most.   

REFERENCES

https://www.unicef.org/nigeria...

Our team is uniquely positioned to deliver this solution due to our combined skills, background, and experiences. Our team lead, Obinna Ujunwa, has a personal connection to this project as he was exposed to the healthcare system at a young age when he accompanied his pregnant mother to maternal hospitals. He noticed the lack of a unified record-keeping system, and this question led to Healthdisk.

Eniola, the project manager, is well-suited to this project due to her extensive volunteer experience at Lagos State Teaching Hospital. Here, she saw firsthand the issues caused by a lack of information and the crisis it can create for patients. This understanding of the problem and her desire to improve the healthcare system in her country inspires her work on Healthdisk.

Our team is also representative of those we serve. We understand the need of patients to be able to access their records quickly and accurately, and the importance of having a unified record-keeping system in place. We are committed to providing a solution that meets the needs of the Nigerian healthcare system and its patients.

In order to best understand the needs of the population we are trying to serve, the Healthdisk team has undertaken a range of activities. This includes researching the potential impact of our solution and volunteering at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, we have engaged potential users in the design and development of our solution to ensure that it meets their needs and expectations. To further understand the needs of our users, we have convened focus groups, conducted interviews, and administered surveys. We have also done a thorough review of existing initiatives that are addressing the same problem, from both the public and private sectors. This has enabled us to identify the unique challenges faced by our target population, as well as the areas where we can make the most meaningful impact.

Our solution is highly innovative as it seeks to revolutionize the healthcare industry. Our cloud-based system offers a number of benefits, such as improved patient access to their medical records, free and highly efficient healthcare facilities, and a unique identification system for each user in cases of emergency. All of these features ensure a better, more secure and faster healthcare experience for patients. This could have a far-reaching impact, not only improving the way healthcare is delivered but also enabling broader positive impacts from others in the space. By making healthcare more accessible, secure and efficient, our solution could be catalytic in improving the overall healthcare industry. It could also help to lower the costs of healthcare, making it more accessible to many who could not otherwise afford it. With our solution, healthcare providers could be better equipped to provide better patient care, and patient satisfaction could be greatly improved. Ultimately, our solution has the potential to shift the healthcare industry into a more advanced, more efficient and cost-effective era.

Our goal for the next year is to reduce the mortality rate of pregnant women and children in Nigeria by utilizing HealthDisk, our innovative solution. Our plan is to launch HealthDisk in 2023 and focus on improving the public and private healthcare sector in the country. We will work with stakeholders in the sector to ensure that our solution is implemented in a way that can have an optimal impact. We strive to create a transformational impact on people’s lives through our solution, and we are confident that, with the right implementation, we can significantly reduce the mortality rate in Nigeria.

Our core technology will be powered by Flutter, Firebase, and AWS. Flutter is an open-source platform for creating cross-platform mobile applications for Android and iOS users. Firebase is a powerful data analytics platform that allows us to store and manage our data easily and efficiently. Lastly, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides us with reliable data storage and scalability for our solutions. Together, these technologies allow us to create a powerful and fully-functional application that provides our customers with an optimal user experience. Currently, our MVP is developed using Carrd for the website, Airtable for database management, and Glide for building the app without code

Our solution should serve about 5 million patients, predominantly pregnant women, and children, across more than half of the states in Nigeria. In the next year (2024), we expect to extend our reach to the entire country, providing critical healthcare solutions to over 50 million people living in Nigeria. Our solution is designed to meaningfully and directly impact the lives of those we serve and to ensure that they are provided with the highest quality of care.

Financial constraints are a major barrier to achieving our goals in the next year. Government policies and regulations can impede progress, as well as the lack of access to financial resources. Technical talent is also a major concern, as it can be difficult to find individuals with the necessary skill sets to successfully help us develop the software.

We are currently partnered with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) on a pilot project for the deployment of the HealthDisk software. We are providing the software and assisting in the implementation process, ensuring that the new system works efficiently and meets the needs of the hospital. We are also providing on-site technical and user training to staff in the hospital, so they can use the EHR system to its fullest potential. Our partnership with LASUTH is an exciting opportunity.

Healthdisk is provided free of charge for both patients and medical practitioners, making it more accessible and driving its rate of adoption. It is delivered as a cross-platform app or via a website, which can be easily accessed from any internet-enabled device. Our service is tailored specifically to pregnant mothers and children, acting as a niche product in a crowded marketplace. Additionally, we provide our API to developers, allowing them to build services on top of our existing tools.

Our path to financial sustainability is based on a revenue model that monetizes e-prescriptions made using our software. This allows us to drive rapid adoption without having to charge medical facilities or patients directly. In addition to this, we also charge developers using our API, affiliated medical bodies for using our anonymized data for analytics and statistical insights, and pharmaceutical companies for leveraging our platform to promote their products to doctors. All of these revenue streams are designed to cover our expected expenses and help us to sustain our work in the long term.