Mtoto

Consider the scenario below

That’s is Mtoto; an online community in the form of a mobile app that enables mothers to share knowledge about the common complications that they face during pregnancy and after birth.

Mothers look up previously shared questions that relate to their current situation and look out for the guidance that was provided by community members. In case there is no related question from the past, the mother directly shares her own question and looks out for guidance from willing members of the community. The app also encourages participation from medical personnel who verify the guidance that is shared.

Since this shared knowledge is based on personal experience, the mothers are encouraged to share their bio-medical profiles to assist those seeking for guidance assess better the most suitable advice specific to their own profiles.

There are so many women in different societies of Uganda and elsewhere in the world whose daily way of living is just like Jane’s scenario. Women with income that is too low to afford quality medical services and no access to free or affordable medical information. 

According to Janet White, 2012 https://go.aws/2YsSZw2, In Uganda, health expenditure was $106 per person year with $46 of this coming from the Government and the rest from foreign aid or out of pocket. In government provided healthcare, there are unofficial fees and patients are often asked to buy drugs and surgical items privately.

According to Jae Lee, 2015 https://bit.ly/2N5pxad, In rural Uganda, accessing medical treatment is a daunting task. With no organized transportation for medical emergencies going to a health center often means walking or riding a bicycle for many hours without guarantee that the health center has the needed medicine or services.

In 2019, Uganda Communications Communication reported Uganda's internet penetration standing at 37.9% with over 23 million internet users, a majority being mobile phone users. https://bit.ly/2MTBNu5

Mtoto bridges the health care gap by providing access to maternal information and taking advantage of the wide usage of the internet and smartphones.

Mtoto mobile application is a knowledge sharing community, for mothers to seek advice on common maternal health issues and share their own experiences and recommendations in order to help out other mothers.

 Maternal health issues are common and almost experienced in the same manner and pattern by most mothers. Differences in the magnitude of these experiences mostly appear in cases where the mothers have different bio-medical profiles and Mtoto has been designed to factor in these variances by encouraging the mothers to share their bio-medical profiles to assist those seeking for guidance assess better the most suitable advice specific to their own profiles.

Mtoto encourages members to share experiences and provide recommendations by ranking of membership in the community. Community members that share the most beneficial amount of information are given top membership which comes along with extra privileges.

Mtoto also encourages health personnel to join and contribute in the community by providing them with access to this sea of knowledge and experiences (useful for research) that has been shared freely and willingly by mothers that are simply looking out for each other.The app periodically provides notifications to the health personnel about on-going discussions as a way of prompting engagement.

Expectant mothers and those with new borns

Mtoto has been developed for women in marginalized communities with no access to quality medical care. To provide free but authentic knowledge acquired mainly through experience by other mothers looking out for their fellow mothers.

Medical personnel on the community

Medical Personnel registered on the community find themselves in a sea of knowledge. Mtoto is research base full of information with a large element of diversity shared willingly and freely by members with different medical profiles.

The health sector at large

The information in this knowledge if gathered, processed and studied can be of much importance in research and planning for governments and community health sectors.

Mothers sharing information on the platform (other community members)

The app awards senior membership to members that share the most beneficial (ranked highly by other community members) and largest amount of information in the community. The community will always expect authentic, meaningful and useful guidance from such members.  

Such members are rewarded intrinsically because they stand chances of being contacted for medical researcher because of their knowledge and experience and the opportunities from this are limitless.

Mtoto is a technology-based solution in the form of a mobile application (to be developed for various OS platforms such as android, windows and iOS).

Mtoto has been designed to target low-income earning and marginalized communities where women lack adequate access to health facilities (and in times like this of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic) to improve their gynecological health by providing an alternative for those that at least have access to a smart phone.  

Mtoto has been designed as a community knowledge base for sharing and providing timely and free access to information related to maternal health and child birth.