2019 FOCUS
HOW YEDEA STARTED
In 2017 our team of American and Ghanaian students led by Elgin Cleckley, founder of mpathicdesign, had three goals. First, we wanted to investigate the barriers to accessing care facing women and children in rural communities surrounding Koforidua, Ghana. Second, we wanted to determine if telemedicine--remote diagnosis and treatment of patients using telecommunications technology--could address these barriers. Third, we wanted to determine the feasibility of establishing telemedicine care centers in such communities if they would be beneficial.
We found that patients often spend significant portions of their day waiting to receive care at a large hospital. As such, they often choose to self-medicate and seek treatment from self-proclaimed herbal doctors. In some instances, they also rely on spiritual healers. Patients seem to understand that these options are not as trustworthy as medical care. However, they feel compelled to make these choices given the currently inconvenient and time-consuming nature of seeking care from advanced public medical centers.
Our goal is to reduce that inconvenience and make seeking care less time-consuming for the patient. Additionally, we hope to lessen the workload of healthcare professionals at advanced healthcare centers by treating some of their patient population close to where these patients live or work.
Respondents said they have difficulty bringing their children to appointments on time due to the distance of their house from the hospital. They also mentioned that they delay seeking medical care. They give their children first aid treatments and wait to see the outcome before going to the hospital—often when there is no improvement in their children’s health.
Respondents said that the main challenges they face are transportation costs and wait times. These challenges made hospital visits stressful.
When accessing the feasibility of telemedicine, all respondents said that they believe that telemedicine will work. We learned that 30% respondents had a smartphone, but all respondents had cell phones and were able to make and receive calls with them. Most mobile telephone users used more than one mobile network company and they did not have major network issues.
OUR TEAM
Ted Obi
Emmanuel Abebrese
Morgan Brazel
PARTNERS
