Hello Health (Allo Santé)

In Cote d'Ivoire, attending a doctor consultation can be quite costly & consuming: hours spent in heavy traffic congestion, hours spent in public hospitals given long queues and out-of-pocket consultations are expensive for the poor. 

Dozens of thousands fail to consult early on a doctor when symptons arise, which can lead to a great deal of avoidable health deterioration cases. 

Hello Health is a chat service on messenger platforms (starting with facebook messenger) where anyone can ask a question and receive an answer in the form of medical advice from a certified volunteer doctor. 

The next iteration is an AI-powered chatbot service that allow people via whatsapp/facebook to play health quizzes, consult health eduvideos/tutorials, mapping of fitness centers and pharmacies, access to an increasingly intelligent chatbot that gives medical advice and in providing discounted offline medical consultations via a network of partner hospitals

Over 500 million Africans will live in urban areas, close to half the total population. In big cities in Africa, attending a doctor consultation can be quite costly & consuming: hours spent in heavy traffic congestion, hours spent in public hospitals given long queues and out-of-pocket consultations are expensive for the poor. Most African countries do run have public health insurance schemes or when they exist, are of poor delivery.

This discourages people from getting an early medical advice. Statistics are lacking but anecdotal evidence and interviews run with the medical profession in Cote d'Ivoire shows that a substantial number of people could have avoided health complications if they had consulted early on a doctor and have been encouraged to do so.

On the other hand, there are 444 million unique mobile users in Africa and 65% of mobile internet users make a daily visit to social networks.

We see a tremendous benefit in providing a free online doctor chat and health promotion service on social networks.

Cote d'Ivoire's population, a country in West Africa is slightly above 24 million. We have conducted over 80 interviews with dwellers, medical practitioners and the medical sector participants to inform our solution.

There are a myriad of health-related queries and questions that do not need the immediate attention and time of a doctor at already over-frequented hospitals. Meanwhile, some persons may see early symptoms of a disease and given that medical consultations are costly & consuming, may neglect the potential gravity of the situation. They need someone to tell them to get going to the hospital.

Hello Health is addressing both needs.

Hello Health is a free doctor chat service on messenger platforms where anyone can ask a question and receive an answer in the form of medical advice from a certified volunteer doctor, and where needed the necessary follow-up guidance.

Our service leverages currently Facebook Messenger and soon Whatsapp and a helpdesk software linked to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. We attract a network of doctors who donate time and expertise. The service is free and similar to Wikipedia, users can make donations via mobile money to sustain the venture.

Following months of research and partner engagement, the service launched a month ago in Cote d'Ivoire and has garnered 4000 fans with 122 questions answered so far. 

Our next iteration is an AI-powered chatbot service that allow people via whatsapp/facebook to access an intelligent chatbot (that uses machine learning and natural language processing) that gives medical advice, play health quizzes, consult health eduvideos/tutorials, mapping of fitness centers and pharmacies, providing discounted offline medical consultations via a network of partner hospitals.

Existing online doctor chat services in western countries work through an app and payable. We are building an online doctor chat service more responsive to users in developing countries.

* Our approach shifts service to messenger apps (Facebook and WhatsApp), easy and without a further need to download an app or bandwidth consumption. Post a message and receive a doctor reply within 24 hours.

* No payment, it's free. Our approach allows doctors/medical student in final years and medical student associations' to donate time and expertise. We bet on the wikipedia model: grateful users can make micro donations via mobile money to sustain the service. 

* Our next iteration AI chatbot service will offer beyond a medical Q&A, health promotion services from health quizzes, local-content health eduvideos/tutorials, mapping of fitness centers and pharmacies.

Messenger platforms are highly scalable and accessible to reach a large number of people in Cote d'Ivoire and emerging countries.

Currently, we leverage Facebook messenger and a multichannel helpdesk software integrating messenger platforms to receive queries, distribute them among doctors and ensure a reply. 

Our next iteration is in building an intelligent chatbot that gives medical advice and provide health information in many forms (eduvideos, quizzes and mapping of pharmacies and fitness centers). We're developing a natural language processing algorithm and a machine learning engine to analyze topics of conversations and provide personalization of content.

Our service launched a month ago in Cote d'Ivoire and has garnered 4000 fans with 122 questions answered so far. We are seeing healthy growth and anticipate significant uptake in the following months.

Current: 4,000 fans and 122 medical questions answered

One-year goal: base of 200,000 fans and 5,000 questions answered

Our 5-year goal is to support 5,000,000 persons in Africa and emerging countries to receive health information and answer a minimum of 1,000,000 medical questions 

We plan to reach our goals through 1) a multi language chabtot service 2) growing the base of volunteer doctors and number of our institutional partnerships 3) activating digital campaigns across different countries and 4) doubling down on word-of-mouth growth. 

Hello Heath is a self-imagined initiative of ASSOCIATION 3535, a venture builder providing a platform for impact entrepreneurs and social innovators to get their ideas off the ground and accelerate their impact in Africa. We intend to spin-off Hello Health as a standalone organization in the coming months. 

1 full-time staff

2 part-time staff

4 volunteer doctors

Richard Seshie is the Orange African Social Entrepreneur of the year 2012, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper 2016 and a YALI Regional Fellow 2017. Certificate in Digital Entrepreneurship Draper University, Silicon Valley. For the past 12 years, he has involved himself in the fields of tech-enabled entrepreneurship, social impact entrepreneurship and business development services. He is a leading Startup connector and catalyst in Cote d'Ivoire.

Dr. Assiry Herve Konan is a recognized state Doctor of Medicine (MD) from UFR Sciences Medicales Bouaké. He is passionate about Sexual Reproductive and Heatlh Rights and Education and is a leading health-focused blogger and online contributor to several digital outlets in Cote d'Ivoire.  

Eric Droh Community Manager and whizz-kid

Hello Health received a kick-off financial grant from the UK-based Amplify challenge

We use a freemium model where Q&A chats are free to users. 

We generate revenue through: 1) advertising revenue and 2) a fee on providing doctor visit vouchers' to users

We secure funding through 3)  micro donations made by users and 4) sustainaed donations and grants

Please see above

Solve can help us go to the next level

Our next iteration is of an intelligent chatbot that gives medical advice and provides on-demand health information to millions of citizens in emerging countries

We plan to promote and offer 50,000 free Q&A chats around women's health and sexual health to 50,000 women in Cote d'Ivoire/West Africa in the next 12 months who receive medical advice. Our whatsapp bot service will allow women to access on a click comprehensive information on sexual health in a multi-content form (eduvideos, quizzes) 

Our next iteration is of an intelligent chatbot that gives medical advice and provides on-demand health information to millions of citizens in emerging countries

We plan to promote and offer 50,000 free Q&A chats around women's health and sexual health to 50,000 women in Cote d'Ivoire/West Africa in the next 12 months who receive medical advice. Our whatsapp bot service will allow women to access on a click comprehensive information on sexual health in a multi-content form (eduvideos, quizzes)