Dr COVIDng

Akingbola Adewunmi is a Nigerian doctor-in-training enthusiastic about re-writing the narratives of the African healthcare system. He is particularly passionate about ending the menace of Hepatitis and other liver and infectious diseases in Nigeria under the aegis of “HealthDrive Nigeria”. His works in ending the menace of Hepatitis was recognized by ex-president Bill Clinton and he was awarded a Fellow of Clinton Global Initiative University in 2020.

He is also an ardent proponent of the SDGs and was awarded an Ambassador of United Nations TeachSDGs and a fellow of United Nations Millennium Campus Fellowship where he was also trained on 21st century leadership skills.

In 2019, he was awarded an Ambassador for Africa of Institute of Economics and Peace where he was trained on peacebuilding strategies and social impact, he was also awarded a Fellowship of the The Platform- Young Professionals Bootcamp where he learnt leadership skills.

Challenges:-

-Inaccessibility of medical consultations from qualified doctors by patients(COVID and Non-COVID)

-Lack of timely updates and information about the pandemic.

-Uninformed movements and travels by Nigerians due to poor demographics of the pandemic situation

- Poor COVID-19 detection and contact tracing.

Solution:-

-Mobile App platform that would connect patients to qualified doctors, provide important updates from WHO about the pandemic and allow Nigerians to know the COVID-19 situation in different parts of the country by providing specific demographics per region. The App will also provide weekly Self-Assessment Test and Triage to quick detect an infected individual and refer to appropriate quarters for expert management coupled with regular follow ups.

My solution will significantly reduce COVID-19 spread and save lives of immunocompromised individuals globally by providing them with specific demographics and platform to consult qualified medical doctors which is an essential need in tackling the pandemic in especially Africa.

Pre-COVID Era, about 30 million Nigerians suffered lack of easy access to medical services and consultations coupled with limited spaces in government owned hospitals and exorbitant medical fees in the private hospitals. Due to the large numbers of emergency cases, patients with lesser medical complaints are forced to line up in a queue before they get attended to.

The COVID-19 pandemic has therefore negatively impinged on the above social justice thereby making it almost impossible to access quality healthcare, even as an emergency case. There’s been a significant increase in the deaths of non-COVID patients and immunocompromised patients in Nigeria who amounted to about 50 million, pre-COVID era.

The government hasn’t been totally conspicuous on the affected areas and regions of the country hence the uninformed movement of the Nigerian people which is causing a surge in the numbers of infections daily. With the lockdown relaxed, the numbers of infected cases in Lagos state alone is projected to rise to 120 thousand in July and this is due the lack of informed movements by the Nigerian people coupled with the lack of consistent triaging of the citizens. All above stated factors relates entirely with my proposed solution.

Doctor COVIDng is a mobile Application Technology that will connect qualified medical doctors and non-COVID patients and immunocompromised individuals in a bid to facilitate treatment of these patients and ultimately reducing the morbidity and mortality of these patients.

Doctor COVIDng would serve to provide timely information and updates about the COVID-19 pandemic through a feature called “COVID InfoHub”. This platform would contain global and national progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in all regards including the quest for the production of working vaccines and therapeutics directed at expediting the treatment of the COVID-19 Infection. It would also contain information and updates from the World Health Organization, United Nations and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and other reputable organizations.

Doctor COVIDng would have a feature with a search icon whereby Nigerians from any part of the country would be able to search out the situation of any region especially where they intend to go, as updated by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health.

The mobile App Technology would have a compulsory COVID-19 Assessment Test and Triage tools for all users so as to ascertain those suspected to be infected or at risk of being infected.

The target populace of my solution are essentially the immunocompromised individuals who have an ongoing chronic illness which has resulted in the suppression of their immune system thereby subjecting them to having a worse prognosis on exposure to the Corona virus disease and ultimately culminating in their death. The current non-COVID patients too aren’t left out, as majority of them have ongoing acute illnesses thereby resulting to immunosuppression and on exposure to COVID-19, would suffer an extremely worse prognosis and would die, hence the need of the solution to connect them to qualified medical doctors for proper empirical treatment and consultations.

Another category of targets are the mobile Nigerians and those that engage in frequent local travels in the country as there currently is no information regarding specific demographics of the pandemic so everyone has little or no idea about the rate of spread of the pandemic in various regions, hence the need for the solution to provide these information.

In a bid to understand their needs, we have conducted several surveys via release of google forms and word of mouth and we’ve been able use the information to refine our solution. 

At the inception of the pandemic, just before the lockdown was implemented, i lost a very important lecturer and a few colleagues as medical students due to the lack of specific demographics of the pandemic in areas of the country.

During the pandemic, my mother fell sick and we couldn't gain access to doctors as there was not a platform to do so and the sickness deteriorated and we had to rush her to the teaching hospital which was already infested with the Corona virus. 

Her not contracting the virus was a miracle and so all these happenings opened my eyes to the problems Nigerians face currently during this pandemic.

There is a significant increase in the numbers of deaths of non-COVID patients due to the inaccessibility of medical care and consultation and these deaths are increasing the more as hospitals are rejecting patients and sending them home.

It is so sad to think that i almost lost my mum during this period and i can relate with the pain thousands of Nigerians go through by losing a loved one to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I know that the government is busy trying to tackle the virus in their own way but there are gaps which they've left unattended to and these gaps are causing more damages than even the COVID infection itself and so i took my time to understand these gaps and developed this solution to addres these salient needs.

My team and I overtime has accrued relevant skills and experience tailored to solving critical problems and hence the diversity of skills which exists between us. Below is a summary of some of my team’s experience.

I serve as the Chief Executive Officer and a medical doctor-in-training in one of the foremost Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria. I currently serve as a frontliner and COVID-19 responder for the Nigerian Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and I am a participant of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “Africa takes on COVID-19” Challenge.

I am a fellow of the Clinton Global Initiative University where I am being mentored by an infectious disease expert on how to tackle global infectious diseases scourging Nigeria.

Adebiyi Kehinde serves as the Chief Operating Officer and holds a First-Class Bachelors’ degree in Microbiology from the Lagos state University and he is a recipient of numerous local and international scholarships. He is an ardent academic researcher in the areas of Medical and Environmental Microbiology. He is currently engaged with research works aimed at managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and he is a YouthLead Ambassador, Hasselbein Fellow and has a stakeholder in United Nations Millennium Fellowship.

Samuel Akinosho serves as the Chief Technology Officer and a full stack developer with over 6 years of experience of building products and start-ups across several industries with practical knowledge on AI and IoT Technology. He has worked at Microsoft, Cisco and Skyguide.

When i began this project, i experienced gross difficulty establishing partnerships with  very important agencies such as the Nigerian Medical Association, Nigerian Center for Disease Control and at some point i thought to give up because these people weren't listening to me which was appalling.

But i summoned courage, i leveraged on my being a medical student and an executive in the Nigerian Medical Students Association and i got across to the Nigerian Medical Association and the NCDC.

Currently, we've also partnered with SDGs-ACT Nigeria and other local civil society organizations.

I had a rough childhood as I grew up in a slum in Lagos state which happened to be a hot-zone of the Hepatitis B virus. Our community was segregated by the government and we were only visited whenever political elections were close and so this caused a lot of my community members to die due to the Hepatitis B virus. It was a devastating period for me as I lost my childhood friends at that young age and i got into depression as the pain was a lot.

I studied hard, aced my exams and got admission to study medicine and surgery in one of the most prestigious universities in the country and while in my third year, I began my clinical posting where I realized the extent to which Nigeria is infested with the Hepatitis virus. I was moved to tears one night in the medical emergency when 5 of the 7 patients we admitted died due to Liver decompensation secondary to chronic active Hepatitis B infection. All these happenings brought back those childhood memories and I was motivated to move the frontiers in ending this menace then i started up HealthDrive Nigeria.

My solution which is to create a mobile App technology that would serve the following fucntions:-

-Connect patients (potential COVID and non COVID) virtually to qualified medical doctors to facilitate medical consultations and ultimately reducing the rate of morbidity and mortality of these patients.

-Provide a feature called “COVID-19 Situation tracker” that would help show the pandemic situation and demographics in different regions of the country which would inform the public on current and potential hotspots so they’d avoid them, thereby significantly reducing the spread.

-A bi-weekly self-Assessment Test and Triage that would ensure citizens know their COVID-19 status.

This is different from the conventional interventions such as Telemedicine features and Triage tools App Technology developed in isolation as used by KangPe and WellVis respectively because we are leveraging on mobile App technology to contain Telemedicine features, a weekly/bi-weekly Self-Assessment and COVID-19 situation tracker so as to prevent people from downloading several Apps for different purposes and will download just one App for all possible purposes. These salient features contained in our mobile App Technology which otherwise are either absent or not widespread enough to stem the toll of the pandemic on the Nigerian healthcare system and the fact that our work would be remote and in alignment with the guidelines and policies proposed by the world health agencies are what makes our solution innovative.

If the increased deaths of non-COVID and immunocompromised patients, increased COVID-19 infection rate due to uninformed movement within the country and lack of specific demographics, and poor contact tracing strategies can be effectively tackled by Dr COVIDng which would contain a feature that would connect the non-COVID patients and immunocompromised patients to qualified medical doctors, contain a feature that would provide specific demographics on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and also contain a weekly self-assessment and triage feature and we engage in partnership with health agencies and bodies such as the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigerian Medical Association, Lagos state University to ensure that Nigerians are aware of this solution and they’re encouraged to make use of the Mobile App, then we would be able to effectively reduce the deaths of non-COVID and immunocompromised patients by 30% within the first year and the percentage would increase yearly, we would be able to tackle the increased COVID-19 infections by providing specific demographics and a COVID-19 pandemic tracker that would help inform the movement of people by 40% in the first year, we would be able to help contact tracing through the weekly self-assessment test and triage and ultimately ensure that lives are saved during this pandemic by 40% within the first year.

Our solution which is directed specifically at tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is currently in the prototype stage which is aimed at helping us better understand the issue from the public’s perspective and as such, we are currently not serving anyone.

However, in one year it promises to serve 10 million Nigerians by connecting them to qualified Doctors, and 20, 30, 40, 50 million Nigerians in 2,3 4,5 years respectively.

In One year, it promises to serve 20 million Nigerians by providing specific demographics of the pandemic with respect to the various regions in the country, identifying hot-zones and informing the movement of the Nigerian people and 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 Million Nigerians in 2,3,4,5 years.

In One year, it will serve 10 million Nigerians by ensuring that people are monitored weekly and also enhance contact tracing with the use of the weekly self-assessment test and triage feature and 20,35,45, 60,70 million people in 2,3,4,5 years respectively.

About 140 million Nigerians have access to internet thus making these projections much easier to accomplish. For others that cannot access internet, we plan to incorporate most of these features in a USSD format.

My goals within the next one year are:-

-To fully launch the mobile App Dr COVIDng and this becomes possible on acquisition of the MIT Solve funding, mentorship and other opportunities embedded in the MIT Solve program.

-To have about nothing less than 10 million users and this numbers of users would be acquired by rigorous publicity harnessing the influence of our partners and also the influence of celebrities.

- One of my crucial goals is to record at least 30% decrease in the deaths of non-COVID patients and this percentage is expected to increase as our users increase.

-Another crucial goal is to aid the diagnosis and tracing of 40% of infected Nigerians and this percentage is expected to increase as our user base increases.

My goals within the next five years are:-

-To record nothing less than 100 million users by employing the same strategies as above.

-To reduce by 75% the deaths due to the corona virus pandemic

-To reduce the rate of infection drastically

-To aid contact tracing and diagnosis of the corona virus infection by 75%

-To have started including other countries in West Africa by establishing dashboards with similar features for them, in the same Mobile Application.

-To be one of the leading innovations at the fore front of the battle of the COVID-19 pandemic in West Africa.

The greatest barrier that currently exist for me to accomplish my goals is the lack of knowledge of Telemedicine which has for a very long time been resident in the heart of Nigerians, including healthcare professionals.

The Nigerian healthcare system as always stylishly opposed the embracing of Telemedicine and this has resulted in the poor scaling of Telemedicine in Nigeria and so this lack of knowledge isn’t a new barrier as it has always been present and thus would be a barrier across various regions of the country.

Another barrier is language which is liable to span through the first year of launch and till next five years. Language in Nigeria is non specific as there are well over 200 ethnic groups in Nigeria with most of them having its language thus causing a negative impingement on the administration of healthcare services either virtual or in-person.

While planning to scale up to other West African countries, language would also serve as a major barrier as not everyone would we comfortable with only an English version.

Another crucial barrier is funding opportunities. This has also contributed to the failure to thrive of telemedicine start ups in Nigeria and this certainly is a barrier that spans through the entire years of my project/solution’s existence.

To address the lack of knowledge of Telemedicine and Telehealth services amongst the Nigerian people, I would leverage on partnerships with the Nigerian Medical Association and Federal Ministry of Health and encourage them to conduct several mass media awareness on Telemedicine and its uses, using our Mobile App (Dr COVIDng) to help people understand the concept. This would be done while our mobile App is undergoing its creation.

To address the language barrier, patients would be allowed to choose their languages and would be connected to doctors who speak the same language on the Telemedicine feature, while on other features, there would be a translator icon which would ensure the translation to their preferred languages.

After signing up as a patient at the beginning of the mobile App, they’d be asked to select their preferred languages so as to aid their understanding of the mobile App.

To address the funding barrier, I’ve resolved to applying for grants and accelerators that would enhance the financial growth of my solution so as to help in sustaining the solution and the organization wholly. I would also establish a revenue stream from the mobile App so as to ensure sustainability, coupled with donations from donors and investors.

Our partnership is based on two aspects; Mobile App Development, Endorsement and Publicity.

We are currently partners with Spydar Africa, a software development company in Lagos state that has developed about 40 Mobile Apps that spans across various sectors including Healthcare, education and has 145 finished projects in total in the aspects of Artificial intelligence, robotics, mobile App development, Internet of Things, e.t.c They’re helping us with the development of the mobile Application, conduction of market surveys and maintenance of the mobile Application post-launch.

We are also partnering with the Nigerian Medical Association and Nigerian Medical Student Association whose endorsements are pivotal to the awareness and acceptance of the mobile Application in Nigeria as they’ve agreed to help us publicize the mobile Application on the Television and ensure that Nigerians are aware of the solution to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

They’ve also agreed to connect us with the Nigerian Centre for Disease control and Federal Ministry of Health.

We are partners with the Lagos State University College of Medicine and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital as we would test-run the Mobile App with their doctors and patients before the full launching of the mobile App.

-Key resources

Resources needed to run our activities are finances in terms of funding and people

-Key activities

Connecting patients to medical doctors, providing demographics of the pandemic to aid informed movement, rapid diagnosis and contact tracing strategy.

-Type of intervention

Intervention is a product built with a mobile software and to be used as a mobile Application.

-Cost structure

Developing the mobile Application, pushing across all stores, awareness creation, Technical and personnel management are the biggest expenditures and are likely to increase as we scale-up.

-Revenues

30% of our revenue would be from grants and donations, 50% would be from the Telemedicine and weekly self-assessment test features while 20% will be from advertisements via our mobile Application technology.

-Beneficiaries

The immunocompromised Nigerians, Nigerians in entirety are beneficiaries of the product.

-Key Partners

Nigerian medical association, Nigerian Medical student Association, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control.

-Channels

I intend to reach my users through endorsements and publicity by our key partners, harnessing the influence of celebrities and key players in various industries, social and mass media advertisements.

-Value Proposition for patients

Reduced deaths, enhance medical assistance via consultations, reduce long queues in hospitals, reduced exposure risks.

-Value proposition for Nigerians in entirety

Aid contact tracing, aid informed movement to avoid hot zones.

-Value proposition to Doctors

Additional income, reduced their exposure to COVID-19, reduced physical workload.

-Impact measures

regularly conduct fit surveys for patients, doctors to gauge impact and satisfaction.

Understanding the importance of financial sustainability, I’ve been able to devise the best strategy to ensure that my solution achieves financial sustainability in a bid to ensure that our impact doesn’t culminate in an abrupt stop.

From our Telemedicine platform which connects patients to qualified doctors, we plan to charge each patient per session for a stipulated period of time, for instance, when a patient wants to see a doctor for five minutes, a particular fee would be charged.

From our weekly self-assessment Test and Triage feature, we would encourage users to subscribe with a fixed amount which would be made very affordable so as to ensure that they’re continually reminded by mails to take the weekly Tests.

I also plan to host some adverts for some companies and bodies via our Mobile Application at stipulated charges so as to ensure sustainability.

Asides from the purpose of financial sustainability, there is also a need to incentivize the qualified medical doctors who would be providing services to the patients and this would go a long way to prevent an explosive rate of doctor’s attrition and to incentivize my full and partial staffs in a bid to encourage their commitments.

Placing charges on some of these services is also necessary to ensure the seriousness of users so that they wouldn’t take the services for granted or for a joke as the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t a joke.

Yes, I seek to raise funds for my solution. I seek to raise $25,000 in grant. By the end of September, I should have raised $25,000

To start with, creation of the Mobile Application Technology which entails the Front End and Back End development and UI/UX development using MERN Stack costs $10,000

Pushing of the mobile Application across of stores and technical maintenance costs $5000

Management maintenance including partial and full staffs costs $5000 till we begin to become financially sustainable.

Advertisement and publicity charges costs $2000

Web and mobile web Application development and maintenance costs $3000