Zed Ambulance

Training local drivers with  basic first aid and pre-hospital interventions in the case of road traffic accidents.

The problem:

According to the Zambian Road Safety Trust (2018) there was a 12% increase in the number of fatal road accidents recorded by the second quarter of 2018 in Zambia when compared to statistics of 2017.

A minimum of 5% of all road traffic accidents in Zambia are fatal. More often than not, the fatal victims of a traffic accident are BID (brought in dead) when they arrive hospital. This is because of the inadequate number of Ambulances and Emergency Medical Service providers in Zambia as well as the lack of people that are adequately trained in first aid and pre-hospital care to help people who are seriously injured with the aim of stabilizing them before they are taken to hospital.

The Solution:

Our solution is to

• Train local licenced public service vehicle (psv) drivers in basic first aid and pre hospital medical care at the scene of a road traffic accident.

2.    Develop a mobile application called Zed ambulance that works on smart phones as well as on GSM phones that citizens can use to report an accident scene.

3.    Register our trained psv drivers on the app in a similar way to Uber so that they are able to receive notifications of an accident scene and can become first responders and can provide pre hospital care before transporting the victims to the nearest hospital in an effort to reduce mortality.

4.    Have trained trauma doctors ‘On Call’ on the app so that they can remotely communicate with the trained drivers in case they need to remotely assist with the appropriate pre hospital care needed.

5.    Conduct ongoing trainings with the driver and continue to improve the solution.

How it works:

Step 1: Anyone at the accident scene can log the accident into the android app or use the USSD app to report the accident. The nearest trained zed ambulance pre hospital care assistant can respond to the call and go to the scene of the accident. The on call doctor will also be alerted and on standby to assist.

Step 2. The Zed ambulance team will constantly monitor and ensure effective response and care is given to each scene. A report is generated by the app and our team on each scene that happens.

Step 3. A thank you message is sent to the person who reported and we will add them to our data base of life savers.  

How will that change the world?

The solution will change the world by reducing the number of fatalities in the event of road traffic accidents. The app can easily be scaled to cover the entire country, therefore more lives can be saved in our country.

This is a solution that could significantly reduce the number of people that die from road traffic accidents due to conditions that could be stabilized had paramedics arrived on the scene quickly. This would have an impact on the number of mortalities in the developing world.

This is a new application and use of technology for emergency medical services in Zambia. Our system will be available both online and offline. It is innovative because it allows ordinary citizens to be able to assist victims of a road traffic accident in the absence of ambulances and emergency medical personel through communication via our online and offline application, GPS and geolocation technology.

We will use technology in order for the registered trained paramedics and transport providers to be notified of an accident. Witnesses of the accident will play an integral role in helping call for help using the Zedambulance app.

Training and development will also be tracked to ensure that registered users are kept up to breast with new methods of providing emergency medical care.

Our on call doctor will also be able to collaborate via technology with the drivers on the scene.

To educate the masses on the importance of being trained to provide first aid in the case of an emergency.

To reduce the number of victims that die on the spot of accidents.

To encourage the use of technology for good in saving someone's life during an accident as opposed to simply taking pictures of someone who may die.

The vision would be to spread it in all provinces of Zambia and other countries that have a similar problem in Sub Saharan Africa such as Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

We will use social media and traditional media to spread the word. 

Training will be done over a period of time in person.

People will be able to download the app using their smart phones.

We will begin with 5000 road users and we hope to gain traction and have them downloading and using the application. We would also want to have 20 trained PSV drivers. 

Every quarter, at least 8,000 road traffic accidents are reported by the Zambian police and 5% of them are fatal. That equates to approximately 32, 000 accidents a year and at least 1, 600 being fatal. In the next 12 to 36 months, we aim to be reaching more than 50, 000 road users and having statistics of a reduction in the number of fatal accidents that are reported. These expectations are justified as our first cohort of drivers will be fully trained and would have undergone various practical tests and will be able to assist at accidents.

Simba Rukayi, is our lead on the creation of the app, being a website and mobile app developer and a graphic designer that has developed various apps. 

Stella Sata, is our community lead and has experience in working with for profit, non profit and governmental organizations to achieve a common goal. She will be the key point of contact in ensuring all organizations work together to make Zed Ambulance a success.

Dr. Prince is a Trauma surgeon at the University Teaching Hospital and he brings the medical expertise needed in order for this health tech to be rolled out.

Our revenue model will be to charge every citizen a monthly fee of K3 ($0.15). This is because, citizens will need to pay for it in a similar way to paying for insurance because any one can be in an accident at any time. These fees will pay the drivers when they assist in an accident, as well as pay for the awareness campaign on the importance of our service. 

 Solve offers us a platform for us to be able to execute this solution as we would have access to technical expertise and a vast number of resources to be able to reduce mortality rates. Solve would help us advance our work by linking us to experts in health care and technology that can help us roll out this solution in Zambia and above and access to funding in order to successfully scale up our solution.

The first barrier is the lack of training centres for emergency medical services. The University of Zambia's medical centre does not offer paramedics or emergency medical service training.

We will therefore need to tailor make a training program and hope that Solve can assist to link us to expert trainers that can come and train our staff in training first respondents.

The second key barrier is culture. Many Zambians will have to be educated and made aware of the importance of pre hospital care in an accident rather than ignoring the situation only to take photos and videos. S