HerHealth Kit

Late detection of preventable infections is one of the major causes of death among women in both developed and developing countries. Infections like candida, bacterial vaginosis and urinary tract infections are common among the women however, many of them especially those  in developing communities are more vulnerable to complications arising from late detection due to lack of funds, inaccessibility of hospitals, misdiagnosis, and cultural sensitivity which makes open discussions about intimate health issues embarrassing.

A study we did in 2016 Mukono district, Uganda, revealed that many families stay 6miles away from their nearest health centers. Therefore many prefer to wait until their infections worsen to seek medical attention, the few that seek medical attention self medicate and most times end up with repeat infections or antimicrobial resistance. Others opt for traditional means like boiling herbs and sit in them to take away the pain but actually live with their infections. 

This leaves them susceptible to long term illnesses  Sexually Transmitted Diseases, miscarriages, Pelvic inflammatory disease which may lead  to difficulty in childbirth among pregnant women, neonatal & congenital infections in newly born babies.

Openly discussing personal reproductive health issues remains one of the most daunting tasks among women today. Research conducted by healthcare experts Balance Octiv shows that 37% of young women aged between 18-24 would not feel comfortable talking to their doctor about intimate health issues especially if they are male. This has left many women with limited options to deal with their reproductive health challenges, and it’s not a surprise that many of them are embarrassed to seek early medical attention whenever they are faced with a reproductive health problem.

A study by World Health Organisation (WHO) in Ghana showed that in the median age of the 703 antenatal care attendees aged 25 years and median gestational age 30 weeks, 76% had Bacterial vaginosis and were asymptomatic. 

A study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2012 reported that of 51% of the women who were tested for bacterial vaginosis, 84% were asymptomatic. In Rakai district Uganda, Medline reported 38.5% of the married women with bacterial vaginosis with most of them presenting diseases in their late stages due to late detection. 95% of women showing at least 1 episode of Bacterial Vaginosis over 2 years with one-third of women spending over half (52–100%) of their time with BV.

Meaning 1 in 3 could be living with vaginal infections and not even know about it.     

Realising the challenges faced in accessing the basic health services in terms of distance and affordability, we assumed responsibility of creating a solution that is, an affordable self-test option for women and addressing the root causes of poor health. We are developing HerHealth Kit, is a first step recommendation and non invasive tool that allows women to screen for urine infections anywhere and advises them to see a doctor based on their results.

HerHealth Kit is a non-invasive screening tool for urine infections anywhere. HerHealth Kit is built to be environmentally friendly as it is a reusable tool and within it we have incorporated already existing multi-purpose Internet of Things devices for the health service providers and web application where users input their signs and symptoms and match results from their urinalysis test stripes parameters to web application. 

The web application computes the values and displays them in results, users then send their results to a doctor or health center of their choice in real time so the doctor can advise whether they should go in for further testing or recommend a prescription they can buy from a nearby pharmacy.

Our primary target population are women and youth who live in rural communities who have to walk at least 6 miles to reach their nearest health centers to get an alternative that allows them access to health service providers. By seeking medical attention from qualified practitioners, fewer patients resort to self-medication or repeat courses of recurring infections.

The Kit allows women and girls to save on costs incurred from making trips to the health centers, consultation & testing fees as the Kit will allow them to know whether they have an infection or not.

For the women and youth who live in urban and pre urban environments, who fit in low-mid income status they can have a solution that saves them time and money for early stage detection testing. As for the moslem communities providing them alternatives solutions to access basic health care services to support them deal with social and cultural biases.  

Our secondary target population include health care service providers like the institutional health centers, public and private hospitals, and urgent care clinics. These have a huge potential market for the Kit to be used as a home care device for remote users. 

We plan to partner with Non Government Organisations that focus on reproductive health who help reach more disadvantaged communities around the world and also make the Kit available at a subsidized price.

We believe there is no one best suited to create a solution to a problem other than someone who has experienced the problem themselves. 

I have over seven years experience in human centered design and work alongside a team of 7 dedicated builders, 3 medical expertises who together have over 27 years experience in medical health practice and service delivery and 4 engineers 18 years experience in software and hardware engineering. 

Together we are working under the advisory of a business development strategist with experience in building  business models that are focused on the end users. 

We build with community for community through research & development and human centered design approaches. We start out with needs assessment activities, baseline studies and community health awareness outreaches and engagements; the lessons learnt through these activities are incorporated in solution development. 

Through this approach we have achieved product diversification through localization of the HerHealth Kit to increase accessibility of the product and service to meet the needs of the community and in future demand for the solution for which region it is introduced.

We believe together we can contribute towards SDGs 3 & 5 by co-creating a tool to empower women & girls to take their health into their own hands by reducing late infection detection, eliminate stigmatization and promote dignity for women both locally and worldwide. 

We have built 2 versions of working prototypes and recently completed our minimum viable product (MVP).

We have done ethnography studies and we are informing our design and have been incorporating feedback to refine our product to meet user’s feedback and needs. That is Need-finding studies and iterating the first prototype.

Our first prototype was a sensor block that was giving us a 50% accuracy from test results but required doctor supervision and doctor only interaction.

Our second prototype was using a model build to communicate with the an application giving us a 74% accuracy required full health professional support to operate, however was giving results faster compared to the previous versions. 

We have recently completed our minimum viable product that was targeted towards a 90%+ accuracy alongside possible signs and symptoms of tested related infections to get a screening result. We have also implemented a Software As A Service platform that empowers individual users to access all their previous screening test results on one platform and send them to a health professional to get future and further diagnosis from their doctors.

We are innovating around the way women and girls monitor their health through HerHealth Kit that will be available for a one shop spot for screening for multiple urine detectable infection privately and at a place and time of their convenience. 

HerHealth Kit will allow home users to test themselves at no fee until they choose to send their results to a doctor of their choice so they don't incur any unnecessary service including transport to and from since they can access health service providers through the platform. The kit also saves time and money as the user will privately test herself and be able to screen  infection(s) and receive a recommendation to connect with a local doctor or contact their doctor of choice remotely. 

Our Kit cultivates a safe environment for patient-doctor interactions through informed consent to access their medical history assisting doctors to make better decisions when selecting effective forms of treatment. By seeking medical attention from qualified practitioners, fewer patients resort to self-medication or repeat courses of recurring infections. HerHealth Kit provides instant results & will keep test records for future and further testing.

We envision a world where every woman and girl has the means to test for preventable infections instead of suffering long term illnesses like cervical cancer. To empower women around the world to take their health into their own hands and to contribute towards addressing the health related needs of women worldwide and eliminate preventable infections, effectively check for presence of reproductive infections.

Realising the challenges faced in accessing basic health services in terms of distance and affordability, we assumed responsibility for first creating an affordable self-test option for women and addressing the root causes of poor health like poverty, lack of funds/insurance to access basic health services. 

Women and girls will have alternative means to screen for urine infections, have means for affordable regular screening at one's convenience & reduce issues arising from cultural sensitivity that make conversations about reproductive health hard since methods like high end vaginal swab is required which is uncomfortable for women & discourages them from doing it and enable 

With the Kit, the women who can’t afford the consultation & urine test fees will be able to know when they aren’t fine and in the long run fewer women will resort to self-medication & be able to screen for infections. The Kit allows women and girls to save on costs incurred from making trips to the health centers, consultation & testing fees as the Kit will allow them to know whether they have an infection or not.

9 (3 full time, 4 part time and 2 contract team members)

The core/full time team have over; 12 years experience in human centred design in innovating for community with community; 15 years experience in hardware and software engineering; and 5 year medical experience. Together we medical and business advisory. 

6 years for research and development with 2 of the initial needs assessment, 4 years of iterative product development, community health outreaches and awareness and engagements, potential start up collaborator engagements and market testing.

HerHealth team is made of 60% female leadership and female participation. We believe there is no one better suited to build a solution to a problem than anyone who has gone through it. 

We not only created the solutions as software and hardware engineers but also health care service providers to an all inclusive solution that incorporates both end users and service providers. 

We aim to achieve Inclusive growth by providing and equipping all key stakeholders including women and youth and health service providers to be a part  of the that they make healthier informed decisions which in the long run influences their contribution to the rest of the economy.

We have also learnt that diversity affects  the adaptability, accessibility and affordability of different services/products. For this reason, we incorporate inclusive innovation and co-creating of both solutions and opportunities in consideration of pathways  like localization of services/products will boost their uptake and adaptability. 

Building solutions for the people while including the people in the process, not only contributes to  their acceptance of the solutions we build with them but also makes them ambassadors of those solutions.

We will provide these services through a Service-On-Demand model, a user subscription alternative for home users and a licensing model for health centers and health service providers who would like to incorporate the service into their service delivery.

We also plan to partner with non-government organisations that focus on reproductive health to cover access to these services so communities can access them through a no-cost to subsided fee.

We anticipate that we will have at least 2500 monthly signups on the web application, have 1000 users/patients sending test results review requests through the platform with at least 10 health service providers responding to these requests, we will raise at $100,000 in revenue in one region. 

With these key metrics and scale to 3 regions we anticipate to raise $120,800 in the first year of launch and up to $160,000 in the 5 regions in the first 18 months of launch.

While in Uganda we raised a total of 5000 USD through the YISG grant and with that we carried out needs finding and validation in Mukono district in 4 sub counties and 4 level one health centers, 2 public hospitals and 2 focus discussion groups that represented women in the early adopters age group that we are targeting.

Through the start up Chile we raised above 30000 USD with which we have validated the kit in 2 Santiago and Concepcion regions in Chile and stakeholder engagement from both local and international.