Vula

Vula is working with the Navrongo Health Research Centre in Northern Ghana to positively impact the provision of care for patients with sickle cell disease. Our purpose is to get patients access to the right healthcare.

Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disorder that occurs worldwide, but it is most common in populations with African ancestry. It is also found in people of Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean descent.

Sickle cell disease is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where it affects up to 4% of the population. It is also common in countries in the Middle East, India, and the Caribbean. 

In the United States, sickle cell disease affects around 100,000 people, primarily African Americans. It is also found in Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and people of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean descent.

Overall, sickle cell disease is a global health issue that affects millions of people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where access to treatment and care may be limited.

The problem we are solving is increasing the capacity and resilience in the health system, improving primary healthcare and because the Vula technology collects data it produces insights that inform future interventions and decision making by health administrators, ministries of health and funders.

Vula is an app and web service that connects health workers. Primarily used to connect primary health workers with specialists. 

The best way to understand where Vula originated and its impact is to share this presentation: How the Vula app is revolutionising the South African healthcare system It describes ophthalmology, but the principles are the same for all specialties. Vula is used in over 60 specialty services. There are additional videos, a 2 minute summary and interviews with health workers.
The website contains written testimonials from health worker and health managers:https://www.vulamobile.com/tes...
For a more detailed view, the 5 academic publications on Vula’s use and impact can be found on this link: https://www.vulamobile.com/research. In summary, Vula reduces the number of unnecessary referrals, improves communication between health workers and provides meaningful data to health administrators.

Background: Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disorder that occurs worldwide, but it is most common in populations with African ancestry. It is also found in people of Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean descent.

Target population for the Vula solution is that served by the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC). This is a research institution located in the town of Navrongo in northern Ghana. The NHRC serves a population of approximately 152,000 people living in the Kassena-Nankana District and surrounding areas.

Navrongo is located in the Upper East Region of Ghana, which is one of the poorest regions in the country. The population in the area is largely rural, and many people rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods.

The poverty rate in the Upper East Region is higher than the national average, and the region faces a number of social and economic challenges, including limited access to healthcare, education, and other basic services. These challenges have a significant impact on the health and well-being of the population, particularly on vulnerable groups such as children, women, and people with chronic health conditions like sickle cell disease.

Through Vula's work connecting primary health workers in the rural communities with the specialist services at the NHRC we aim to improve the health and well-being of people in the area, particularly those who are most vulnerable and marginalized. 

Dr Mapham is from a rural area in South Africa called the Eastern Cape. Our team representative, Stacey Ann Pillay is from a rural area in South Africa called Kwa-Zulu Natal. We always visit the areas that use Vula and this includes spending time with the Navrongo Health Research Centre, see the link on their webpage The Vula system was adapted and designed by the health workers in Navrongo as well as the community health workers.

To date (11th May 2023): 

Health workers: 31,314

Patients benefitting: 1,099,492

Health administrators receiving monthly data analytic reports: 312

Research publications: 6

Vula is scaling and I am applying to Solve to get support in the following areas.

Human resources: how do I best structure the team to scale easily and in a way that doesn't inhibit the growth in impact

Legal & Regulatory: We are expanding into more countries, each with its own medico-legal requirements. We don't have an in house legal counsel, so I need to get support and advice in how to best approach this challenge.

Monitoring and Evaluation: We produce a lot of data. We do not have internal research capacity. I am looking for partnerships in the MIT Solve network so that I can combine our data source with M&E expertise. This will help measure and improve our impact.

Public Relations: Vula works with frontline health workers in many rural areas. These are the angels of healthcare, people who will make any system work despite all the challenges. With public relations support we can both promote the inspirational work at the frontline as well as inspire other people who may have misconceptions of rural healthcare to emulate them.

Vula is regarded as an innovative solution. Voted by MTN in 2019 as the Best Health Solution in South Africa and by the UNDP in 2021 as one of the top 4 most innovative solutions improving access to healthcare.

Most tele-health solutions focus on the primary care patient to provider space. Vula is different. Vula connects health workers to each other. This means that you could see any health worker who can use Vula to get specialist advice in order to treat you. This saves you a trip to a specialist and the health worker learns every time Vula is used.

The 6 publications to date show that the imapct is now improving health systems.

Big Hairy Audacious Goal:

1 million health workers using Vula every week.

This means that 10million patients will have benefitted.

Plan:

Structure the business to scale, expand in terms of territories and specialties. 

We received help from a consultancy to measure our impact according to the SDGs.

Please see this spreadsheet for the details

Please see our theory of change on this link

It includes references to the 6 publications on Vula's impact

Vula App

Vula Web Dashbaord

Vula Analytics (PDF reports)

Our company aims for inclusivity.

Senior Management > 50% female