eMuN mobile app for sickle cell pediatrics
High mortality rates and morbidity cases in sickle cell disease pediatric patients due mistreatment and misdiagnosis of sickle cell disease caused by inaccessibility to specialist medical services in Busoga region of Uganda.
In Uganda, 20,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year, yet 75% die before the age of 5years. (Ministry of Health, Uganda).
In many cases, some children will die without the doctors and parents knowing the cause of the death due to low infant screening.
People from around the country travel to the national referral hospital and wait for long hours in long cues and this is not sustainable for both the government and the caregivers and the patients.
eMuN is a mobile app solution that is providing access to specialist medical services to sickle cell disease pediatric patients.
eMuN is encouraging better doctor to patient relations and promoting patient centred care for people with sickle cell.
When one, downloads the app and opens up an account, eMuN care contacts them to schedule a full body checkup and open up a virtual medical file to be used in their course of treatment.
With eMuN patients are reviewed monthly by specialist medical personnel in their respective municipalities during the eMuN mobile Centres.
On the app, patients can report emergencies and an ambulance can easily pick them to the nearest eMuN Partner hospital.
Caregivers share their experiences and stories through the chartroom on the app creating and a virtual support group for the caregivers and patients.
Patients who do not want public care can ask for a private session with a specialist of their choice.
We are providing he health hub for recommending caregivers type of exercises, nutrition and diet.
We are working on bringing more modules as we implement these modules that we have developed.
eMuN mobile app is designed to serve sickle cell pediatric patients through their caregivers who use the phone to monitor and manage sickle cell under close relations with specialist doctors.
Out target population is caregivers who have smart phone and button phones to use the mobile app to provide treatment services to their children with sickle cell.
The children whose lives are impacted are 14 years and below.
Children with sickle cell are deprived of standard care since there a few doctors who understand the disease, for instance on many occasions, doctors will give treatment of Malaria instead of right prescription for sickle cell because of less knowledge about treatment of the disease.
Caregivers to the children have less knowledge about the disease. They spend a lot of money in expensive frequent hospital visits which is increasing poverty in the house holds.
Sickle cell is claiming more lives of children every year yet few medical resources are allocated to support this community. Those providing treatment will provide it expensively at once yet continuous inspection and monitoring is needed.
Wth eMuN, we are seeing a transformed world where the sickle cell community is empowered by providing services at a non profit Level improve livelihoods.
Nassanga Shadiah the innovator of eMuN mobile app, is a sickle cell warrior and Advocate for sickle cell patients in Uganda. eMuN is one of the projects under Malaika Children Initiative a Community Based Organization set to provide solutions to problems of people with chronic illnesses and intellectual disabilities.
Malaika Children Initiative is under mentorship and development at Makerere Innovation and Incubation Centre to nature and support the brilliant social impacting ideas from the youth leaders in the CBO like Nassanga Shadiah.
Youth leaders in the CBO work closely with the communities to assess their needs and deliver the deserved change to our people.
We are working with specialist medical doctors to guide out youth leaders in providing this support to the people to put in line our solution, it's practicality and as well preserving impact.
- Enable continuity of care, particularly around primary health, complex or chronic diseases, and mental health and well-being.
- Uganda
- Pilot: An organization testing a product, service, or business model with a small number of users
None.
We are launching our pilot study in 50 children with sickle cell disease and 50 caregivers in July 4th 2023 for one year.
I, am sickle cell warrior. I am Advocating for people like me to access quality care. There is no better way than me being on the frontline.
Currently, I would like to increase creating awareness about sickle cell burden in Uganda. And invite anyone who can support me in my journey.
I registered my Community Based Organization Malaika Children Initiative to help more like attain care and improve their livelihoods, anything given in support of my vision is welcome.
For example, even if it's attending a conference to call for more partners in sickle cell management in Uganda, I am willing to come.
- Financial (e.g. accounting practices, pitching to investors)
- Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
Our Initiative is meant to reduce the rampant pediatric sickle cell death rates and internal body organ failure cases in children with sickle cell disease.
The mobile application is a means of providing quality medical care services to the children through their caregivers.
With eMuN mobile application, quality care can be accessed by anyone on the platform,
For example people move long distances and wait long hours to access care, but with eMuN all that is put to an end.
We are aiming at launching our first pilot study by 4th July 2023 to continue for one year upto 5th July 2024.
This pilot study is to be used to measure our impact for the short and long run, as we understand our customer needs and feedback.
By 2028, we are aiming at reducing sickle cell disease pediatric deaths by 35%. This is our five year goal.
We are achieving this by establishing long term partnerships in both private and public institutions to have a common goal to improve the livelihoods of families living with sickle cell.
- 1. No Poverty
- 3. Good Health and Well-being
- 10. Reduced Inequalities
- 17. Partnerships for the Goals
All households of different income statuses living with sickle cell, can access our services.
We have carriedout three baseline surveys in different sickle cell communities to assess our product and as well get feedback from them. This includes doctors, patients and caregivers.
We are encouraging the use of the I.T based health care provision to our people by creating awareness about the eMuN mobile app.
We have gone for different competitions and hackathons to show case our work and our impact, both with in Uganda and in the diaspora, mainly to call for investors.
We are using a mobile application to make children immune to complications of sickle cell disease.
Currently, the app is available on Google play store
We are looking at introducing the SMS Technology and USSD codes so that even those with out the smart phone can access our services.
- A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful
- Audiovisual Media
- Internet of Things
- Software and Mobile Applications
- Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Our team leader is a sickle cell warrior (patient). In some settings people like her with a Chronic illness will not be given leadership positions.
We are including and making our services available to all people from different backgrounds, groups and income statuses.
We are aiming at using our mobile application as platform to develop more Advocates for minority groups like sickle cell community in Uganda.
We are providing specialist medical care through our mobile app at a monthly fee of $1.2 per child as subscription.
All this however is to be achieved through long-term relationships among different stakeholders in our supply chain
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
Through partnerships with both private and public institutions, we can easily rollout and implement our solution for the first five years with lower costs.
However, our business model is structured as both for-profit and non-profit.
Through subscriptions and subsidization of services, we are provide quality service to our customers.
Through our online survey we carriedout out in February 2023, 70% of caregivers admitted to spend more than $167 per month on medication for the children.
Our solution is aiming at providing quality health care at $60 per month. For every child on the platform. Through, partnering with organizations that can offer the services.