CureLink

CureLink is a mobile app that connects patients in LMICs with healthcare providers. By inputting symptoms and medical history, the app provides personalized antibiotic recommendations and education to promote appropriate use. It aims to capture real-world community-level data on antibiotic prescribing and resistance.

Idda Shirima, as the Managing Director, leads our team, guiding our mission to empower communities for responsible antibiotic use through CureLink.

The major problem we are working to solve is the lack of data on appropriate antibiotic use and rising resistance levels at the community level in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Over 65% of antibiotics in these East African countries are estimated to be sold in outpatient settings like pharmacies, yet little is known about how, when and why they are prescribed and used outside of hospitals that serve over 150 million people across the three nations. 

Studies show that in these countries, over 50% of outpatients receive antibiotics for viral infections like colds and flu that will not respond to such treatment. Incomplete dosing, where patients stop taking antibiotics once symptoms resolve, is also common - exceeding 50% in some communities. This drives the spread of resistance. Limited understanding of when antibiotics are truly needed and how to take them properly stem from insufficient health education and support for prescribers.

With resistance rising rapidly according to WHO data, effective national action plans in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are hindered by a lack of local usage and resistance surveillance. Our CureLink app aims to begin addressing this by capturing important consumption details directly from patients.

Our solution primarily serves community patients and healthcare providers in low-resource settings who currently have limited access to effective clinical decision-making tools. 

For patients, CureLink addresses the need for personalized antibiotic recommendations suited to their individual situation. It aims to improve health outcomes by ensuring patients receive the right treatment at the right time. The app also builds health literacy by providing education to help patients better understand when antibiotics are truly needed.

Local healthcare workers gain support for prudent prescribing through AI-powered tools that analyze a patient's full medical profile and conditions in their local area. This helps address the need for context-specific guidance beyond broad national guidelines.

To understand user needs, we have conducted surveys and focus group discussions with patients and providers in our target communities. This feedback has shaped our AI model development and design of the app interface to ensure accessibility. We will continue beta-testing iterations of the CureLink app with these groups to refine the experience based on real-world use. Our goal is to empower both patients and clinicians through an easy-to-use solution informed by the people it aims to support.

CureLink directly provides several important public goods:

1. Open-access Data Dashboards

Our monthly anonymized antibiotic resistance and usage reports generated from aggregated app insights will be made freely available online. This helps inform governments, organizations and researchers seeking to monitor patterns and evaluate stewardship programs without proprietary restrictions.

2. Community-level Resistance Tracking 

The real-time yet anonymized resistance data we collect at the point-of-care will help public health experts focus resources on rapidly emerging threats or changes at the grassroots level to better protect underserved populations. 

3. Patient Education Resources

All materials our AI develops to build health literacy on prudent use - accessible via the app or in print - will be non-proprietary. This empowers communities and aids other groups working to curb misprescribing through informed demand.

4. Open-source Codebase  

To facilitate global uptake, we will openly publish the full code underlying our AI models and app framework under an MIT license. This lowers barriers for Customization and adoption in other regions to continue addressing the massive data and resource gaps hindering the fight against AMR.

Our solution aims to have significant impact on patients and communities in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda in the following ways:

For patients (over 150 million people): 

- CureLink's tailored guidance is expected to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by 30%, according to pilot surveys. This could prevent harmful side effects for 2 millions annually. 

For communities:

- If community-level inappropriate prescribing is reduced from 50% to 30% within 5 years due to the app, antibiotic resistance in the region may be slowed by an estimated 10% according to WHO models.

For healthcare providers:  

- Early results suggest the AI assistant reduces diagnostic time per patient by 20 mins on average. This could allow Tanzania's 14,000 clinicians to see 30% more cases annually as resistance spreads.

For Ministries of Health:

- With open data dashboards refreshing monthly usage patterns across 150 districts, agencies may better target educational campaigns and curb future resistance hotspots preemptively. 

Through empowering underserved populations with personalized medicine delivered freely via their phones, CureLink ultimately aims to improve patient outcomes, slow the AMR crisis, and strengthen regional healthcare systems – collectively saving millions from untreatable infections in East Africa.

Over the next year, we aim to:

- Expand our Proof of Concept testing to 5 new regions across Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, enrolling 5000 additional patients and 200 providers. This will strengthen our evidence base before wider rollout.

- Integrate the CureLink AI with electronic medical record systems used in 20 hospitals and 100 clinics across the pilot regions. This builds infrastructure for scaled deployment. 

- Publish results demonstrating outcomes like 20%+ reductions in unnecessary antibiotic use to attract partners and generate buy-in from ministries.

Over the next 3 years, we plan to: 

- Deploy the fully-functional CureLink app nationwide via promotion in all medical facilities and mass media campaigns. This could reach over 43 million people.

- Work with partners to localize the platform for use across sub-Saharan Africa to ultimately serve upwards of 87 million patients. 

- Achieve sustainability through modest subscription fees for clinical/government users or optional in-app point rewards for patients. Funds will maintain the AI, support new regions and drive further innovation against AMR.

By leveraging our AI-powered platform, we aim to transform antibiotic practices at a massive scale across the developing world - curbing resistance before it renders many life-saving medicines obsolete.

We are measuring our success against the following key indicators:

1. Reduction in unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions - Target 30% reduction from pilot baseline by next year. Current app data shows 20% drop across 350 pilot users. 

2. Growth in active monthly users - Aim for 10x scale to 50,000 users in Tanzania by 2024 representing 5% of target population. Pilot saw 100 new registrations last month.

3. Change in AMR surveillance data - Working with regional bodies to track shifts in priority pathogens and resistance genes covered in our quarterly open reports.

4. Increased healthcare access - Surveys track clinician time savings and whether patients get crucial care due to app wait time reductions. Pilot suggests 25% of users saw a provider this year versus 10% without the app. 

5. Stakeholder feedback - User net promoter scores and regular interviews help refine experience and education. Most recent pilot work garnered 80/100 satisfaction rate.  

We also conduct rigorous quantitative and qualitative outcome analyses. Regularly reporting our progress transparently against these metrics to partners and potential investors is core to accountability as we work to transform antibiotic access.

Here are some key barriers we foresee and our plans to address them:

1. Infrastructure: Much of rural Africa lacks reliable internet access. To overcome this, we are developing an offline app mode and integrating with existing SMS/USSD networks. 

2. Cost: Building medical-grade AI and deploying at scale requires funding. We are pursuing grants and impact investment. Modest user subscription fees will also contribute once established. 

3. Policy: Navigating regulations across many countries takes time. We are engaging ministries early and emphasize open solutions facilitating information exchange compliant with local requirements.

4. Adoption: Changing entrenched habits is challenging. To drive uptake, we will partner with major hospital networks to integrate clinically and promote through their vast community outreach programs. 

5. Skills: AI and mobile health expertise are limited. We are addressing this through training programs with universities and by contributing open resources that can help develop local talent over the long term.

6. Sustainability: Relying solely on donors is risky. We will demonstrate impact to attain larger-scale contracts and public-private partnerships cementing our model.

Through strategic collaborations, continuous improvement guided by feedback, and step-wise expansion focused initially on overcoming key hurdles, we aim to successfully scale CureLink's impact.

We are applying to The Trinity Challenge because it presents a strategic avenue to address the pervasive issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through pioneering solutions. A key obstacle we encounter is the scarcity of comprehensive data regarding antibiotic utilization and resistance trends, particularly within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Trinity Challenge offers a promising platform to surmount this obstacle by furnishing access to a network of collaborators and resources adept at facilitating the collection and analysis of such critical data.

The Trinity Challenge's commitment to advancing data-driven interventions and fostering cross-sectoral collaboration resonates with our strategic objectives. The endorsement and backing provided by The Trinity Challenge would bolster our credibility and prominence, thereby fortifying our ability to attract supplementary funding and forge strategic partnerships. Ultimately, The Trinity Challenge represents a distinctive opportunity for us to effect tangible change in combating AMR and elevating healthcare outcomes on a global scale.

We are keen to collaborate with organizations that specialize in public health, data analytics, and mobile technology to enhance the impact and reach of our solution.

 Specifically, we are interested in partnering with organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as they have extensive experience and resources in combating infectious diseases and promoting global health. These collaborations would provide us with valuable insights, expertise, and resources to further develop and scale our mobile application, ensuring its effectiveness in promoting appropriate antibiotic use and combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the community level.

 Additionally, partnerships with these organizations would enhance our credibility and visibility, helping us attract additional funding and forge strategic partnerships to accelerate the implementation of our solution.