Wellness Connexions

There are several problems in the administration of health services Namibia in Namibia.

1) In Namibia there is a two-tier health system. Public & Private. In the public sector, a paper card / booklet system is used to keep patients medical history and records. These medical paper booklet are kept by the patients, which they can carry along as they visit different public health institutions. The card frequently get lost or damaged. The pages in the booklets are limited and often get filled up and discarded as a result. 

2) In the private sector patients do not keep a medical paper booklet. The private doctors keep the notes from the consultations. Mainly in paper files. These notes are essential their private notes, although they contain patient medical data. When a patient goes to another private doctor, it is very hard to request "their" from the previous doctor. The ownership of the data / notes can become a contentious issue. Patients normally do not think of making copies of the doctor's notes for their own record keeping. Each doctor keeps their own notes on the patient.

3) The medical system in Namibia is very reactive and only focuses on treating diseases and illnesses after patients present with symptoms. There is very little focus on wellness promotion, preventive medicine or healthy living to prevent many of the diseases that create a large burden in the health system

4) The medical insurance companies maintain digital systems for their internal administration. However many patients do not get access to a portal for their tracking of the status of their benefits.  Many have to wait to receive paper-based reports mailed to them in the post office box from the medical insurance providers. However, access portals are given to pharmacies to verify status of patient benefits before allowing purchase of medicines.

Our proposed solution is to:

1) Develop a secure web-based platform (with a mobile app also) that can be used by patients and health care providers to record, store, view and update medical, health and wellness information.

2) The solution is intended to provide a comprehensive and convenient way of keeping all patient health related information in one place accessible through a portal. This info includes medical history, medical insurance information, wellness activity tracking, etc. The solution allows for this patient data to belong to the patient while providing access to the authorized health care providers. It also make the data "portable" as the patient can move between different health providers (and only need to give access to the new doctor or health professional to the data that is already intact, secure and stored online). 

3) By keeping a sub portal on wellness promotion, the solution is also intended to promote healthier living among the users and, in the long run, lead to better health outcomes in the country.

4) The solution will use web technologies, mobile applications technology, data storage technologies and blockchain technology for enhanced security and reliability.

The solution will be available to all Namibians who want it.

The ownership and security of patient data in Namibia is currently neither well regulated nor administered. This solution will help in addressing these challenges by making sure that:

1) Patients can have ownership and access to all their medical data and information.

2) Patients have access to tools and information to improve wellness and disease preventing lifestyles.

Our whole team is comprised of Namibian people who are also frequently interacting with health care providers and institutions. The problems and challenges described are realities that we are all faced with regularly.

All our adult acquaintances have these similar challenges. Some of the team members are also professionals in the Namibian health sector and understand the problem from different vantage points.

We hope to get technical and some financial support from Solve. Our hope is that solutions with similar features as ours have already been developed or attempted by other SOLVERs. We hope to leverage such technical experience wherever it is available.

Some financial support will also go a long way to help our team complete this stage of our solution so that we can bring the solution to market in the coming months

The solutions solves a persistent problem in Namibia, while using tools that are ubiquitously available to most of the adults here. 

Most Namibians have the problem of access to all or some of their medical information.

Most Namibians now have access to mobile phones and computers 

The ministry of health has been making investments in upgrading internet access in the health facilities for several planned e-health initiatives

Our solution is innovative in that it combines all these factors to solve a real problem

By the end of the year (2022) we would like to have a working prototype that we can pilot with a list 20 doctors that we have already informed of our development.

We would also like to link the patient access portal of 2 medical aid / insurance providers to our web portal

When the prototype is ready, we would like to pilot it with at least 1000 people in Namibia in order to study the reception of the solution by the target market and learn what improvements may be required.

During this year we will also be studying all the e-health initiatives that our government is planning in order to see hoe we may integrated these plans in our development efforts.

After consultations with various government, private sector, individual stakeholders in the concept stage, our focus now is to use the needed technologies in order to complete building the prototype as well as the marketing and awareness raising platforms.

During the pilot phase and beyond, we will then be better able to measure and evaluate the impact of our solution.

Secure access to own medical information in an issue that is very solvable in Namibia and elsewhere with new technologies that are readily available.

A web-based (maybe cloud hosted) medical information access portal is very much something needed in Namibia.

There are no many solutions developers currently trying to solve this problem. Our government has made several declarations about the need for e-health services. They also seem to be at work creating the underlying infrastructure that could support whatever e-health services they have in mind.

The successful implementation of our proposed solution will create immediate value for our users (allowing them portability between private and public health care facilities, or between various private sector health care providers) while also in the long term creating the possibility of integrating government initiated e-health services.

Many doctors and other health care professionals have also expressed positivity for this intended technology solutions to improve their office administration and service to their clients.

Our Solutions uses the following technologies:

Web Platform (Cloud Hosting)

Mobile Application

We would like to incorporate blockchain technology

Our team is composed of 3 men and 2 women (Core team). One of the man is living with a disability. We have a policy of non-discrimination among ourselves.

We intent to offer our clients (patients and health care providers) -  convenience, ownership, security and portability of their medical information, while also providing an opportunity to get exposed to a wellness and disease prevention life-style

When the solution is launched we hope to offer it to the Medical Association of Namibia or the Ministry of Health or another health-focused agency in the country , so that they can offer it as a service to the nation. 

These kind of negotiations have however not yet started, since the solution is at a very early stage of development for now.

Until the pilot phase is completed we will raise funds through the following means.

1) Team Members contributions (financial and in-kind)

2) Business Model, Pitching & Start-Up Incubation Competitions

3) Grant Application from national or international donors

Team leader, ICT Consultant, has offered to hire student interns on a rotational basis, and work alongside them to develop the draft solution over next 3-6 months

A team member has donated an office corner in their pharmacy, where our team of developers can sit once the development has started

Some financial contribution from all the core members has raised enough funds to purchase the web-hosting platform on which the prototype development can start very soon. 

We have entered our solution for a business model competition at a local university where there are price moneys available for over 10 entrants. There is a good chance that we may scoop one of the cash prices or other business support opportunities offered.