HealthEdu Ltd

This is an online health education company which has been created to facilitated continuous professional development for health professional in Rwanda and in East Africa. It provides education materials and has helps more than 1,500 medical staff so far, the organization signed MOU with more than 28 medical specialists who develop the contents. So far we have 1,929 health professionals on our platform. and more than 100 are following the course on COVID-19. 

This is giving knowledge and can be scaled to other countries as well. 

 www.healtheducat.com

In Rwanda and in many other countries in Africa, Medical professionals are requested to upgrade their knowledge by doing CPD (Continuous Professional Development) courses to improve their skills and it is mandatory by regulatory bodies which license them, they have to show evidence at the license renewal each year. They lack training sessions because we have less specialists and all we have have  to concentrate to patients. Some live in the rural areas and traveling to attend is difficult, they loose more time and money trying to get the courses. 

With a well designed web application, I have been with the team managed to sign contracts with 29 specialists who develop our contents. We receive medical contents and ask for accreditation in regulatory bodies and then post them on the application, people especially medical professionals in Rwanda enroll and study online, this helps them to save money, and access accredited courses from the convenient of their home and work, saving time as the application is 24/7. This has enabled as service more than 1,900 Health professionals in Rwanda so, now we have a course on COVID-19 in which more than 100 health professionals in Rwanda have enrolled to it and the number is increasing. 

Here as we have many health professionals working in remote areas, and in this time, it is recommended to be isolated and be in quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many are increasing their knowledge and skills on the course on COVID-19 and take action in protection the populations and serving the nation. This can be scale in other countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, etc... 

With the lack of continuous education packages for medical specialists in Rwanda, and having many working in the rural areas, now in addition, people are not allowed to travel District to District, they are able to learn and get information on COVID-19 and have insights on how to help patients and protection the population for the spread of covid-19. 

This is helping the community to keep protecting their citizens against the pandemic currently being faced. 

In Rwanda some referral hospitals tried to solve the problem I am solving with face to face courses but they are not efficient to solve as they cannot train all the medical staff even those working in rural areas and I came in with this website application and it has so far trained even more than those trained by the referral hospitals, because of the use of a web application, first of its kind in Rwanda, it makes it an innovative solution.  

Here with the web application, all trainers are able to connect from their places and upload the training materials to the platform or they may prefer to send the education contents to us to be uploaded, the applicants who are medical professionals are able to access the materials form their place of work or their homes especially in this time of quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  

The above video is a demo of the function of the platform that is enabling the solution.

I have been able to experience the same question when I worked in the hospitals and now more than 1,900 health professionals in Rwanda have benefited from the solution and in the survey we contacted among more than 70 who responded so far, 95% of them report to have got new knowledge and 94% report to recommend the web application to other health professionals as it helped them. In the case of the pandemic, if many are enrolled they will increase knowledge without moving and be able to get updates a help their fellow patients and the whole community to prevent the pandemic. 

The solution is serving 1,929 health professionals now in Rwanda, in 1 year it will be serving 10,000 medical professionals and n 2 years 32,000 health professionals in Rwanda will be receiving courses online through our platform. In 5 Years it will be serving 100,000 Health Professionals in all the countries of East Africa.

In then ext year the goal is to reach and enroll at least more than 10,000 Health professionals in Rwanda 

In the next 2 years, the goal is to have all health professionals in Rwanda enrolled and using the platform , they 32,000. 

In the next 5 years, the goal is to have on the platform at least 100,000 medical professionals and using the platform form the east african countries. 

The barriers is the lack of funding to allocate in different activities of the organization in order to achieve its goals. We are in need of 50,000 USD to finance our operations, marketing and service improvement.  

Here we are planning to save more more the application generate and work as volunteers with thee whole team members and allocate money in the most important issue, the team members will only be receiving transport and meals allowance for the next 2 years. We are planning to request for funds in different organizations to help us achieve the goal and improve health for the general population. 

We have 7 full time staff members

2 part time staff members. 

I am Jean Damascene BIGIRIMANA, the CEO, I am a health professional and a public Health Practitioner I have experience in the problem and knows better how to match the who and create impact. we have a COO who is a health professional as well and supports, the team comprises of 4 Web deveopers who are well trained and to deliver and an online attendant who is well positioned to manage health professionals and support in case the have problems on the solution. 

We are in the Partnership with Rwanda Allied Health Professions Council, Rwanda Medical and Dental Council, National Council of Nurses and Midwives, National Council of Pharmacists in Rwanda who accredits our courses and approves the delivery. 

We are working as well with Westerwelle Startupt Haus which provides for us the training rooms in case we need to conduct the face to face training sessions.

We are partnering with the Acts of Gratitude of Rwanda which provides space as well for our face to face training sessions. 

We are partnering with a company called the Real Pictures which design all the posters and brochures we publish to engage people on our social media accounts.

We provide ours courses for free initially and charge on the next, but the course on COVID-19 is completely free because we need to attract many people doing it and promote the prevention of the pandemic. We shall install an annual subscription of 55 USD per Year and 10 Dollars per course. 

We need to raise money first to build the organization and stabilize its team members and them work in saving and improving sales to gate a financial stability within 3 years. 

The coronavirus is a pandemic and my company has started to participate into the solutions by providing a free online course for medical professionals in Rwanda, the reason is that we are participating in solving the challenge created by the pandemic and the real situation of geographic status in Rwanda and in East africa. 

We first need funds to grow the business and scale it to other countries in need, we also need legal and regulatory matters in other countries when we shall be in need to apply.  We need advisers as well. 

I would like to partner with the WHO in availing the resources that can be used to avail more education materials. 

The CDC o help availing the education materials as well.