PUSHA HEALTH

Linkage to Primary Care and Access to Medicines

Problem: When medicines are out of stock in one facility (point of care) but available in another, patients in Botswana and other low-and-middle income countries have to walk long distances in search of their prescribed medicines because they do not have access to information on where the medicines are available. This is costly, leads to unnecessary suffering, treatment interruption, financial loss and an erosion of the users’ faith in the ability of the service to meet their needs. This is a concern as the need to have access to safe and effective medicines is so important that it has been designated as a basic human right by the World Health Organization [1]. The relevance has been given further weight by its inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 3.b [2].

An article on the state of medication availability at Francistown, Botswana reported that:

        “These drug limitations that have plagued medical facilities within Francistown, and its confines, have an inevitably negative impact on patient care. Several cases of patients visit their local clinic only to be told by clinic officials that the clinics dispensary did not have various medication, thus patients were being advised to outsource the prescribed medicines from their nearest pharmacy." - 'Francistown town clinics hit by shortage of drugs', The Patriot (11/06/2018) 

Given that the average availability for the district was 84.2 per cent for vital, 75.1 per cent essential, and 40.7 per cent for necessary drugs, it was apparent that some clinics in the district had medicines that others did not have. This is an issue because for those who are financially challenged, this is a huge disadvantage. Failure to purchase drugs greatly compromises their health and in some cases may lead to irreversible deterioration of their ailment or condition. Therefore, it is without a doubt that drug shortages compromise patient care.

In more recent times, Covid-19 has also played a role in the status of primary care and access to medicines. Botswana had a case on the second week of March 2022 where it was reported that "...the ministry received some vaccines and medications that were in short supply". The following statement was issued to indicate that this had an effect on the experiences of the citizens of Botswana: 

       "The ministry assures the public that it is fully aware of what they have been going through in relation to drug shortages and anticipates the situation to keep improving as more drugs and medications procured continue to arrive.”  - Botswana hit by shortage of medication, Business Weekly (04/04/2022)

This is alarming as Health & Wellbeing as well as Children's Wellbeing are one of the main objectives of the pillar of Human and Social Development under the 'Botswana's Vision 2036' agenda to transform the economy of Botswana. Therefore, cases like this counteract the progress that the government of Botswana is trying to make towards achieving these goals.

Solution: Our mobile application can be valuable in helping the country achieve this objective by improving access to primary healthcare services as well as access to medication. 

Ordinary community members often do not have ready access(or a central help point of information ) linking them directly to primary care services, including where they can obtain the medicines they need without having to travel from one facility to another losing time and at a cost. This solution brings this required information into their mobile phones as well as at the community leadership office to bridge the digital divide.

By implementing our solution, we hope to:

• Improve the time it takes for patients to acquire their required medication by transferring the process of finding out where to get their medication to their handset.
• Allow for patients to avoid having to queue in lines by allowing them to get access to basic primary healthcare services form their devices such as asking questions about their medical issues.
• Aid in improving the quality of primary healthcare service by using patient reviews as a key tool in improving performance.

PUSHA HEALTH is an Android mobile application which empowers community members to directly access primary health care services through their mobile devices to contact a community health care team. The team is made up of a community health nurse, a pharmacy practitioner and trained community representatives. Patient users can enquire about their health care needs and be linked with consultation services or get information on the location of the medicines they require all from the comfort of their homes. It draws information from the various primary care services and consolidates them under very easy to use icons that the patient can access at the click of a button at any time and place in three steps i.e. Click-Enquire-Link-Leave a Review. 

This solution is complementary to an existing mobile app that was launched in Aril 2022 in South Africa. Keno Health is described as:

   "an app that connects users to a team of qualified healthcare practitioners for advice, diagnoses, prescriptions, sick notes, and even referrals to a specialist pathologist or other places of care, as needed." - 'New South African App Lets You Consult Doctors From Your Smartphone', IT NEWS AFRICA, (06/04/2022)

Our solution achieves the same objectives as this mobile application, however our solution is unique in the sense that it revolves around the community leadership, calling a community assembly (The Kgotla) and selection of Community Healthcare Improvement (CHI) team members who work under the community leadership. They are then trained to obtain/work with the healthcare services providers in the community to reach community members and upload information into the application.

Our solution also caters for community members that are disadvantaged by the digital divide. They can easily get help from the CHI team members at the community leadership office/center and also use their phones to enquire, access services, hold community assembly type discussions through WhatsApp groups, raise community topical healthcare concerns and provide feedback on quality of services received. 

Following receipt of healthcare service, community members will be asked to provide feedback with measures based on primary healthcare improvement key performance indicators (KPIs) which comprise system/structure, Inputs(medicines), Service delivery, Outputs and Outcomes. This information will then be consolidated and reported at the community assemblies called by the community leaders. It would then be used by the community leadership to call upon policy makers to address primary healthcare service delivery issues in their communities and by the Ministry of Health to: determine the primary care service gaps in the respective communities; disseminate healthcare messages to the community; and measure the reach and effect. 

This solution is better and complementary to the existing methods as it takes the healthcare services reach further down to the individual community members as compared to the current method which ends at the community clinic level, which also means that community members have to visit the clinic before they can access services. This solution can also be linked to the current Ministry of Health DHIS2 software which tracks medicine availability but is not accessible to community members. PUSHA HEALTH will be able to utilize this existing solution to inform patients about were exactly to locate their medication, avoiding the cost and time wasted in search of a facility that has their required medication. This reflects the dynamic nature of our solution as it can be used by the Ministry of Health achieve improve Health and Wellness according to the Botswana Vision 2036 under the pillar 2 of Human and Social Development.

source: Botswana Vision 2036

Data is collected through the community members reviews which facilitates in relieving the issue of limited human resources in healthcare. This is advantageous as limitation of resources is a challenge in low-to-middle income countries because it uses community volunteers and community peer groups who have a better relationship with the communities. It is a bottom up approach that encourages teamwork and community involvement rather than a top down solution.

The primary data collected is used by teams comprising CHI members and healthcare workers so that the community members and their leadership can be continually appraised, while healthcare workers submit information to the ministry of health for decision making purposes. The community leadership can use the information gathered through the mobile app to inform and invite healthcare stakeholders such as NGOs and CBOs to come and fill the community services healthcare gaps identified, especially in cases where the Ministry of Health is unable to provide required services.

In essence, a solution like the Keno Health mobile application is said to only provide "...a whole team of nurses, doctors, and mental health professionals" for patients to have access a healthcare professional. However, we are providing a multidimensional solution that can be used by the community to improve access to healthcare while providing a means for informing policy making decisions at leadership level, as well as suggest measures of improvement through data gathered from patient reviews. As a result, the PUSHA HEALTH solution becomes a long-term based solution to community issues based on primary healthcare.

The solution serves ordinary community members especially those that fall under the following categories:

• the marginalized communities (women and children, LGBTQ+) 
• the elderly and those with physical disabilities
• those who experience acute attacks (fever, asthmatic attacks, heart condition) or have chronic conditions and 
• those who may require medical attention and medicines or need vaccinations for epidemics (e.g. COVID-19 vaccines). 

The solution will bring information quickly within their reach at the press of a button on their handsets or at the nearest community leadership office thereby improving their quality of life by ensuring:

• safety 
• timeliness
• efficiency
• effectiveness
• equity and customer focus
• and their health status

The target population whose lives we are currently targeting are: 

1. The poor, rural indigenous communities who depend on public facilities for healthcare services
2. The under-privileged women and children
3. The most at risk populations such as orphans, Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and transgender individuals who are often underserved in that they are part of vulnerable communities
4. Those that have limited access to health care facilities and consequently receive infrequent visits from health care providers, as well as have poor reach by last mile supply chains. 
5. We also aim to relieve chronic care patients whom stockouts present a barrier to primary care as they interrupt treatment 
6. and lastly, HIV and TB patients who may develop resistance and may transmit HIV and TB to others.

These groups often end up having to travel long distances, resulting in high transport costs, just to enquire about primary healthcare services or find out where the much needed medical supplies that are only available at selected locations unknown to them, can be accessed.

The following references are useful here:

1. Those most vulnerable to the effects of stock-outs are usually poor and rural communities who depend on public facilities for healthcare services. Patients with chronic diseases may experience interrupt treatment, which increases the risk of falling ill, developing drug resistance and transmitting HIV and TB to others. 

source: Retrospective cohort analysis of prescription patterns of cancer medications during periods of drug stockouts in Botswana

Studies on the impact of PHC on health outcomes in LMICs showed that strong PHC also leads to improved and more equitable health outcomes, particularly for infants and children.

Stockouts of prescription medicines constitute a barrier to the use of modern health services. The situation is more serious in semi-rural or rural areas as: 

     “...the closest private pharmacy can be 100 kilometers away from a public health post, which leads to high transport prices to look for medicines by poor people” – 'Making Essential Medicines available to all citizens in Botswana', World Bank Rapid Evaluation Report (04/03/2019)

Chronic diseases patients: Unfortunately in most cases, when pervasive stockouts of medicines occur in health facilities, patients visit public health facilities only to fill in their prescriptions at private pharmacies.

source: "Stop Stock-Outs" Campaign Launched in Africa

How will the solution address their needs?

The PUSHA HEALTH solution will bring the bouquet of healthcare services into
their handsets. For example, link them to the community member in the community leadership office who has the information on the type of healthcare services they need. The solution links them to the community health nurse in their community, the community doctor, the community pharmacy. The solution will also point them to where the medicines are available and even link them to those who provide house to house deliveries through GPS technology so that medicines can be brought to their doorstep. 

This solution will help:

• reduce transport costs
• improve timeliness of obtaining their treatment
• reduce treatment interruptions
• remove barriers to care
• reduce preventable fatalities amongst chronic care patients as it enables them to keep their conditions under control
• reduce the risk of resistance and transmission of communicable diseases such as TB and HIV/AIDS 
• improve the equity of health service delivery
• reduce childhood illnesses 
• improves health status of communities

Our team has previously worked at community level with Community Improvement Teams comprised of community members selected by the populace under the guidance of the public leadership. They applied quality improvement methodology to mobilize and facilitate linkage care for HIV/AIDS patients as  part the WHO 90-90-90 initiative across 8 villages in Botswana. 

Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, our team used WhatsApp communication to receive enquiries from patients on lockdown who could not access much required medicines as a result of not being able to move around to search and locate medicines. We used our pharma reload WhatsApp network (See WhatsApp group B on the diagram), to locate their medicines from various pharmacies. We also volunteered to collect and deliver the medicines to their door steps while including electronic payment methods in the process.

Other than that, we currently live amongst these communities. Our members are community health nurses and community pharmacists in the hard to reach communities. When in need of medicines, they would simply inform us as we log the enquiry into the WhatsApp network. Within minutes we would be able to get a response on exactly which community pharmacy has the medicine available and in effect, the patient can directly visit the appropriate location to timeously access their primary care medicine as well as get access to the services they need in quality time.

We have engaged with the communities and their leadership and they have
expressed the need to be involved in such an initiative as they need improved access to primary care, medicines and for their healthcare concerns to be addressed by policy makers community by community. Our team has engaged with village development committees to try and revive village health committees which will serve well to guide community inputs and agendas. Our team has also presented the solution to the Ministry of Health, the Innovations Hub, including relevant pharmaceutical Societies and received support. This is what makes us well positioned to deliver this solution and deliver it to the community.

We are applying to this challenge to introduce this primary healthcare solution to the world as one that addresses the high unmet need to link ordinary community members to primary health care services and medicines. There is currently a disparity in terms of how healthcare is managed in the public sector as low-to-middle income countries struggle to satisfy the needs of patients, more especially in the public sector.

This solution aims to apply a decentralized approach to healthcare services in Botswana by measuring performance through the mobile application. This way, data collection becomes simplified and is uploaded to a database that can make keeping record of patient experiences as well as performing analytics possible. Consequently, this will help in measurement of primary healthcare improvement and provide stakeholders with a birds eye view on the state of primary healthcare in Botswana. The collection of patient experience done through the PUSHA HEALTH will also serve as a key resource that can be developed further for use by other stakeholders in the private sector such as medical aid while encouraging economic and lifestyle improvement.

This solution is innovative in that it will be the only service in the world that combines a people centered approach of a community leadership driven health service. It involves the community as co-developers of health services which brings about: equity, access, empowerment of the individual community members, cultural sensitivity, and technology that integrates data systems to build on and link information from different health programs. The technological aspect of this solution brings information to the hands of the individual community member thereby increasing use and improving health outcomes. It also provides an electronic measurement of primary healthcare improvement which reduces the need for human resources while bringing real time visibility.

It could also be catalytic in that it integrates data systems such as the Ministry of Health District Health Information System (DHIS2) to build on and link information from different health programs. Consequently, information empowerment is introduced to the patient and the community, leading to wider visibility of community health status to the Ministry of Heath and other government bodies.

This solution addresses the high unmet need for access to medicines through a direct consumer to health medicinal access service through mobile phones. This will enable others such as medical aids and corporates to leverage the platform and bring about positive health care access impacts.

It has the potential to connect all individuals with timely, effective, and efficient primary health care access as there are more than 5 billion wireless subscribers worldwide—70% of whom reside in low- and middle-income countries, with Botswana having "1.48 million internet users" (Kemp, 2022) as recorded in January 2022. This is emphasized by the increase of internet users by "27 thousand (+1.9 percent) between 2021 and 2022" (Kemp, 2022). On top of this, Botswana has experienced a rise in the total number of internet users having had "registered approximately 1.5 million internet users" (Kamer, 2022) and this can be seen as a rising trend according to the diagram. We can anticipate that our mobile application will have exponential impact on the economy of Botswana due to the rate of access to internet technologies. Our application will hopefully improve these metrics by helping to bridge the digital divide by encouraging the use of technology to improve lifestyle.

References

Kamer, L., 2022. Statista. [Online] Available at: https://www-statista-com.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/stati... [Accessed 06 August 2022].

Kemp, S., 2022. DIGITAL 2022: BOTSWANA. [Online] Available at: https://datareportal.com/repor... [Accessed August 06 2022].

1. Equitable access to information on locations where patients can obtain much needed medicines on time: We plan to reach 80% of mobile phone users in Botswana by working alongside mobile communication providers to make accessing the platform affordable for Batswana. As our application uses WhatsApp for most of the communication, collaborating with service providers would make it possible to implement broader solutions such as using a USSD application or allowing users to chat with healthcare workers directly on the app with designated data packages.

2. Community participation in improvement of access to medicines through community engagements: We plan to scale up our solution by using platforms such as community assemblies led by community leadership to promote use of this solution. We also hope to capitalize on the ability to access large demographics of people to issue out announcements through the platform at an immediate rate. This will be unlike the other current methods of communication such as Facebook which requires a user to be logged in or the radio or newspapers that follow rigid schedules for announcements.

3. Reduction in waiting time to obtain much needed medicines following prescription: The current system currently requires the patients to wait in line at the clinic (refer to the image below). This kind of queue can take hours to assist which can in effect make service slow due to the fatigue of healthcare workers as well as frustration, leading to a negative experience. We want to make this line vanish by allowing the patient to visit the healthcare facility and have their medication already waiting for them. And for those that may experience a shortage in medication availability, we want to eliminate resource wastage experienced from searching for the right services as much as possible.  

4. Measurement of the level of medicines access especially by communities in remote areas and disadvantaged, women and children: According to the article on 'Improving child health care in Botswana: what can be done? ' from The 'Pan-African Medical Journal' ,         "[a]ccess to appropriate healthcare for children remains a challenge in Botswana, as evidenced by the under five mortality rate and integrated management of childhood illness indicators" (Lynn Tuisiree Tjirare, 2021). One of the leading factors that influenced this was the " length of time required for effective IMCI consultations"(Lynn Tuisiree Tjirare, 2021). Therefore our solution will bring upon transformation to the lives of children and mothers in Botswana by improving the processes behind consultation and also providing real-time measurement of the quality of pediatric and maternal healthcare services. This information can be used to critically inform and monitor the strategies placed by Ministry of Health. Our solution will help address the concerns raised by the article by informing strategy, facilitate in training, supervision and improve community education.

5. Visibility of community medicinal needs to the ministries of health and governments: Our application is geared to help with improving procurement of medicine at a community based level. Our application can facilitate in giving access to an overview of the demand and patient needs from a decentralized perspective. The Enquire aspect of our application allows for the health sector to remain in touch with the current health climates as well allowing for improved policy making at governmental level. The Leave a Review will on the other hand, aid in gathering qualitative data that can be used to measure community medicinal and primary healthcare needs directly from the patients.

6. Improved utilization of health services-Continuity of care and promotion of health seeking behavior: We predict that the costs associated with travelling between healthcare facilities in search of medication and facilities will become more expensive as the years go by. This is influenced by the visible increase in the cost of travel on public transport in Botswana. The diagram (shown below) reveals that the cost of travel has significantly increased in Botswana due to the increasing rates of inflation. The line graph has an upward trend which indicates that the cost of travel is expected to continue rising, while the sharp incline between 2017 and 2021 reveals that we can anticipate a spike in the cost of travelling in public transportation in Botswana. This economic factor can have an influence on the health seeking behavior of citizens of low-to-middle income countries as over time, the costs associated with travelling in-between facilities to get patient care will be negatively impacted and in effect, marginalize low-income citizens. 

We plan to mitigate conflicts such as these by implementing a remote solution that recognizes the financial challenges faced by the community and provide a cost effective way to promote health-seeking behaviors by automating healthcare and limiting the need of travel.

 7. Involvement of community members to build capacity of health care workers to improve access to medicines: We plan to not only bring forth this mobile application as a solution, but to also propose an improved and streamlined way of approaching community healthcare. By delegating tasks at each level of the solution, it will encourage the capacity of healthcare workers by not only reducing their workload through automation but also improve their level of involvement to introduce more community driven solutions.

8. Integration of the tool to existing health information systems: The current DHIS2 database that is being used by the Ministry of Health in Botswana will have expanded its use once we are able to establish our services in line with the government. The nature of the application also makes it applicable to the private health sector industry as it is a scalable model that allows for alterations to be made according to use. This is due to the agile development approach that has been utilized to develop the application which encourages a separation of concerns.

References

Anon., 2022. numbero. [Online] Available at: https://www.numbeo.com/taxi-fa...

Morewagae, I., 2008. All Africa. [Online] Available at: https://allafrica.com/stories/... [Accessed 05 August 2022].

MOSOJANE, B., 2018. Facebook. [Online] Available at: https://web.facebook.com/ThePa... [Accessed 05 August 2022].

Ntesang, C., 2020. AllAfrica. [Online] Available at: https://allafrica.com/stories/202008270298.html#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Government%20Gazette,30%20thebe%20per%20km%20respectively. [Accessed 05 August 2022].

The PUSHA HEALTH solution measures progress through the dimensions of structures, inputs, outputs and outcomes

STRUCTRES
Indicator 1: Engagement with communities and other multisectoral stakeholders.

1. Indicator 1.1: Coordination mechanisms with multi-stakeholder participation and community engagement will facilitate Kgotla meetings where the Ministry of Health and community leadership use information from PUSHA HEALTH mobile application to engage in healthcare improvement issues.

Indicator 2: Engagement with private sector providers that are currently engaging with private pharmacy providers to assess access to information on medicines, location and availability through the WhatsApp group.

INPUTS
Indicator 1: Measure access to facilities where medicines are available. This will be mapped through GPS-based technology.

Indicator 2: Availability of medicines will be measured through individual patient responses on the PUSHA HEALTH mobile application.

Indicator3: Health workforce capacity will be measured through rate which community members are being recruited into teams and trained.

OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES
Indicator 1: Geographical access to medicines- This will measure the use of the app by people of different demographics and measure access to medicines by asking them to share feedback directly into the PUSHA HEALTH mobile application.

Indicator 2: Quality of primary care : safety, timeliness, effectiveness, equity, efficiency, customer focus
We will ask patients to share experiences and perceptions of the care they receive using the PUSHA HEALTH mobile application.

We expect our solution to bring about overall, improved wellness and health status. This will be achieved through improved experience and enhanced management, measurement and maintenance of primary healthcare services. We expect that these objectives will be influenced by the user's ability to make bookings for consultation through the mobile application, make enquiries about medications and through sharing their experiences via the mobile application.

This model is supported by the World Bank Rapid Evaluation Report which was conducted in Botswana between July 2018 and August 2018. In this report, it was noted that: 

"...better communication between health workers and patients was recommended. Health seekers wish to be better informed about the medicines availability and would want to be advised earlier if they need to travel to get their medicines."

Our solution resolves this finding by providing a way for improved patient experience through the ability of patients to enquire about medicine availability and the opportunity of patients to have direct access to PHC services through being able to consult with healthcare professionals through the app.

PUSHA HEALTH’s core technology is run on an Android Mobile Application and is therefore dedicated to an Android operating system. This application is linked to a cloud database which is essential to storing patient reviews. An unstructured database will facilitate the performance of data analytics processes to gain insights from the data gathered from patient reviews. PUSHA HEALTH is currently linked to WhatsApp to facilitate in the communication between the patient and the healthcare terminal to enquire about where to get medication as well as have discussions revolving around the patient’s health concerns.

The main framework of the PUSHA HEALTH mobile application is based on the modular approach of design which is “…the process of separating the functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect of the desired functionality” (Jee, 2019).

By basing our solution on this, our mobile application is expandable, making it interchangeable and unchallenging to develop our functionalities beyond what we have currently established (see the screenshot of the current structure of our mobile application below)

In terms of the technology behind the communication networks, we will be using a star network which “enables people to communicate with each other or with people who are involved in the same process.” (Pedamkar, n.d.)

Illustration of communication framework

The network of healthcare facilities and services (illustrated in the diagram above) indicates how we plan to use WhatsApp to establish a network of healthcare providers and pharmacists locally to improve service delivery. A star network will facilitate this as it is designed as a “development of a wheel network with no central person to control the way of communication”  (Pedamkar, n.d.). This will encourage a streamlined way of attending to patient requests and deliver responses to them while reducing the workload of the workers as well as time taken to receive output.

References

Jee, C., 2019. Medium. [Online] Available at: https://medium.com/@caitlinjee... [Accessed 9 August 2022].

Natesan, N., 2019. Software Intelligence Pulse. [Online] Available at: https://www.castsoftware.com/b... [Accessed 09 August 2022].

Pedamkar, P., n.d. EDUCBA. [Online] Available at: https://www.educba.com/types-o... [Accessed 9 August 2022].

The PUSHA HEALTH primary health data will be collected through the following means:

1. Patients sharing satisfaction feedback following using the app to access services and the motivation being.

2. Community based surveys by teams of health care workers and community
healthcare improvement members who will use the app to conduct surveys for sampled community members. They will be motivated by the zeal to improve health services for the benefit of their communities.

3. Primary care service providers who will survey patients as they use the app to link and obtain their medicines, they will be motivated by effect of the change brought about by the solution in improving their workload.

4. Facility surveys, including Qualitative assessments with facility managers by ministry of health engaging the PUSHA HEALTH team with the incentive to
provide objective measures for evaluating facility and service capacities and readiness and systems for improving quality and resilience in providing access to medicines.

5. Population surveys by national Ministry of health teams incentivized by the need to assess the effect of the solution on PHC capacities, mechanisms for engagement with communities, multisectoral coordination and action, and models of care.

Our work offers equal opportunities for all irrespective of gender, sex creed, socioeconomic status. We subscribe to absolute inclusivity for all and respect cultural diversity no matter one’s geographical identity. Our solution also provides a platform where patients may be able to experience quality patient care services from their comfort of their homes which is significant for patients who often face physical barriers when visiting healthcare facilities. 

A report on spinal chord injury patients in the Greater Gaborone area aided in giving a perspective on the difficulties faced by physically impaired groups when they visit clinics in Botswana. 

"Availability was hampered by insufficient provider knowledge on SCI as indicated by 71.9% of participants, and shortage of consumables (80.7%). Structural challenges (42.1% could not enter the facility by themselves and 56.5% could not use the bathroom) and lack of height-adjustable examining couches (66.7%) impeded accessibility. Cost was incurred when participants (64.9%) utilized private health services where public services failed to address their needs." - Access to primary care for persons with spinal cord injuries in the greater Gaborone area, Botswana, (23/09/2019)

PUSHA HEALTH will be able to integrate individuals such as the patients in the above mentioned study when we collect patient reviews. Patients with similar experiences will have a voice and platform which will make community leaders and policy makers, more in touch with their realities. The patient reviews will also be able to inform community developers on the significance of developing with purpose, and in turn cater more to their physical needs.

The PUSHA HEALTH will also provide a more discreet way for individuals to handle their personal health issues such as HIV/AIDS patients and teen mothers, without fearing judgement when visiting a healthcare facility instead.

What solution our company is selling:

We will be selling a software and infrastructural solution that can be  customized to meet the needs of clients. Our prospective clients are: 

• patients
• medical aids and other private health sector industries
• as well as the government

Our solution will be sold in the form of a software-as-a solution. It will include features such as 

• a medicines location service tool
• a self medication assistance tool 
• a source of medicinal information for both healthcare professionals and patients.
• PHC performance measurement tools to inform health organizations

We will be using a subscription model that charges these services at a fee.

How we intend to market our product and service:

We will first market the solution to other grant and subsidiary organizations in Botswana such as the Botswana Innovations Hub or government
to help us bring the product to market. We then plan to advertise our solution on social media networks and also promote it to the Ministry of Health.

We hope to fund our start-up through grants offered at institutions such as the Innovation Hub, the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) and other subsidies offered by the Government of Botswana. We hope to also expand the capacity of our project through the prize money won from the MIT Solve in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

In order to sustain our solution, we will be distributing our solution as a software-as-a-service which would mean that we would provide the functionalities of our software solution to companies in the health industry, including the government, at a service fee rate. This fee will be based on the costs of the database usage for each client we serve, which would be based on the number of expected users from their end, as well as the cost of providing functionalities particular to their use case. This way, we can expect to cover the costs of running and also be able to add mark-up the price in order to reach a profit margin.