Yedea uses a streamlined telemedicine platform that connects patients in rural Ghana to Ghanaian and international healthcare providers, while using population and geographic data to identify regions where people are most underserved and at risk. In these regions, we build low-cost, pop-up clinics, as a space to provide tele-consultations. Highly skilled nurses will operate the clinics, answering health questions and scheduling appointments for patients with our doctors. During a consultation, the nurse patches the doctor in and conducts all physical exams as instructed, essentially acting as the doctor’s “hands”.:
The “Brain Drain” refers to the departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector, or field to another, usually for better pay or living conditions. Healthcare workers generally migrate from developing countries to more developed countries, leaving a scarcity of healthcare professionals where the need is arguably the greatest. One implication of this phenomenon is severely understaffed hospitals, which translates into long wait times for patients. Patients in Ghana often spend significant portions of their day waiting to receive care. As such, they often choose to self-medicate and seek treatment from self-proclaimed herbal doctors.
Patients seem to understand that these options are not as trustworthy as professional 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. In addition, often times patients have to choose between going to work and going to the hospital because of the long wait times. Unfortunately, many patients choose to neglect their health until it gets serious in order to ensure that they do not miss out on the opportunity to make money. 81% of the patients we spoke to did not seek medical attention immediately because of wait times, long travel distances, and financial constraints. Seeking treatment at the last moment is not a healthy practice, and only increases the stress that doctors face, decreases the quality of care for the patient, and reinforces the logic behind the emigration of healthcare professionals.
Proposed Pilot Project: 2019
We plan to test the efficacy of our solution by conducting a pilot program in collaboration with Doctors Act Ghana for at least 1 month in Nkurakan (pending approval by Ghanaian Ministry of Health). By conducting a pilot program, we hope to address any and all possible problems that may arise in the future and implement the best cost-effective practices to fulfill our goal. We will leverage existing relationships with public health officials and establish a relationship with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health. Our partnership with Doctors Act Ghana gives us access to a number of Ghanaian doctors, willing to provide tele-consultations for our pilot program. Our current niche target market will be Ghanaians suffering from chronic diseases. Major causes of death in Ghana have shifted from predominantly communicable diseases to a combination of communicable and chronic non-communicable diseases over the last few decades. Hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and cancers have become top 10 causes of death
How it works:
We plan to set up a low-cost clinic (See Appendix Figure 1) outside of a community health center which we expect will be easy for patients living in the local community to locate.
• A sick patient will call or stop by our local clinic to set up an appointment for a teleconsultation with a doctor.
• The community health worker will take the patient’s history of present illness using a HIPAA compliant form. The community health worker will schedule the appointment, notify the doctor of the appointment, and send the patient’s history to the doctor
• The patient will pay a 1 Cedi deposit to hold the scheduled appointment.
• Patient returns at scheduled appointment time (or waits until appointment time) and pays additional 4 Cedis for the appointment (5 Cedis in total)
• The community health worker accompanies patient to a room equipped with a HIPAA compliant video conferencing tool
• Tele-consulting doctor conducts patient visit with the help of the nurse and sends e-prescription to the clinic
• Community health worker gives patient medication in stock or the prescription and location to a trusted affiliate pharmacy
• Patient fills out feedback form and leaves
• Community health worker contacts patient 3 days later to follow-up with healthcare
Our pilot Yedea Telemedicine clinic will be open August 4-30th 2019 during the weekday hours of 2-6PM, and occasionally some morning hour times. The clinic will be located close enough to a major health center for emergency support. Although we plan to treat non-emergent cases, we realize that patients may be unaware of the severity of their ailment before coming to our clinic, therefore it is important that our clinic is located close enough to the hospital for referrals.
Future Goals and partnerships:
We plan to use a population/ demographic based algorithm to launch a second location in proximity to the most underserved community. We will use our established partnerships with public health officials, Doctors Act Ghana, and local churches, as these are the most trusted entities in Ghana, to educate the public about how we can increase their access to healthcare with our solution. Additionally, from spending some time in West Africa, we have seen that word-of-mouth can be a very powerful marketing tool, especially in rural areas where collaboration is crucial for survival. Keeping this in mind, Yedea will strive to enhance the patient experience because quality treatment of patients will establish a trusted brand and likely result in the addition of new patients.
Our Team
Emmanuel Abebrese, Co-Founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-abebrese-2b59ab56/
Emmanuel is a third-year medical school at the University of Virginia. He grew up in Ghana and spent most of his teen years accompanying his parents on mission trips to rural communities. He developed a passion to serve the less privileged through that experience and has over the years sought effective ways of helping those in need. He established Citadel Foundation for Kids (CFK) as a non-profit organization in Ghana and in the U.S. to give his service partners in both countries the opportunity to collaborate and contribute their resources towards a better world for children. As an undergraduate student, he interned at two departments at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana, working on projects to develop a new antibiotic and reduce malaria-related child mortality through vaccine-development. His volunteer experience in Ghana has focused on health intervention projects for screening and treating water-borne illnesses and counselling new and expectant mothers on proper child care and nutrition. His clinical experience encompasses working and shadowing in nine clinics and hospitals in the US, Thailand, and Ghana in a range of specialties including pediatrics and surgery. He sits on the boards of WAGiLabs, a social innovation incubator for kids’ ideas, and PROSAMI, which provides affordable, quality health care to women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo using Telemedicine. While studying medicine at the University of Virginia, Emmanuel is investigating ways of utilizing telemedicine to serve patients in remote locations. In addition to his B.S. in biochemistry and minor in poverty from Washington and Lee University, he holds an M.S. from the McIntire School of Commerce at UVA.
Ted Obi, Co-Founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-obi-1bb3b3147/
Ted Obi is a first-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He was a
Summer Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he participated in cross
disciplinary workshops focusing on finance, accounting, and social innovation among faculty, alumni
and top Chicago C-Suite executives. He was also an intern at the Cinco Ranch Medical Supply Corp
where he organized meetings with medical device manufacturers of medical devices and managed
device delivery. Ted is in charge of managing the business aspects of Yedea Telemedicine.
Morgan Brazel, Co-Founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-brazel-842a6a147/
Morgan Brazel is a first-year medical student at the University of Florida. She has a broad research background that includes from projects regarding transplant surgery, global public health, and developmental neurobiology. Morgan is in charge of organizing the field research in her current role with Yedea Telemedicine.