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Babykit Company Limited

webadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:41:05 +0000

Babykit Company Limited webadmin Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:41

It is making low cost infant warmers using locally available raw materials to help new young mothers in refugee settlements to improve care for at-risk or premature babies

Introduction

BabyKit Company Limited’s social mission is to produce quality and unique products which are made out of the locally grown cotton that acts as a baby warmer to the new born babies (0-3 months) in Africa. The babykit sifo for newborns will help mothers living in refugee settlements/conflict areas who want to keep their new born babies aged 0– 3 months warm by providing low-cost and locally made cotton baby warmers at health care service delivery points in their locality thus reducing the risk of pneumonia

New mothers living in a refugee settlements or in conflict areas face a problem of infant ( (0 – 3 months) ) pneumonia because the mother cannot afford warm beddings and stays in a poorly constructed home. Currently, they’re using lighter pieces of cloth, lighter blankets which cannot provide adequate warmth to the baby. However the team has developed a low-cost and high-quality baby warmer product that consists of a sifo warmer and a blanket to the new mothers. This product is being provided at the health service delivery point during discharge. The team is observing a reduction in the number of pneumonia cases thus an improvement in maternal health.

Progress and Results

The team had many test areas based on feedback from the end user

a)The need: The team conducted a needs assessment to validate whether the discharge and pregnant mother in refugee/host community in refugee settlements that have been discharged from health facilities would take their baby warmer because newborn babies lack warm bedding to prevent them from coldness due to the poor housing structures. The feedback was positive with the target audience showing interest in the product
b)Affordability: The team conducted an experiment to validate whether discharge and pregnant mother in refugee/host community can afford to buy products at low cost- the outcome was positive i.e. discharge & pregnant mothers in refugee/host communities can afford to buy the babykit products
c)Distribution: Given the geographical locations of the health centers, discharge and pregnant mothers in refugee/host communities, the BabyKit team experimented on which channels to use to distribute their products to the target user. This involved leveraging the Village Health Teams community structures and the outcome was that they are willing to resell it and the margins from revenues they are willing to accept.
Marketing & Scale: To validate this test area, the team experimented on

The impact of a sales and payment plan on Packaged Sifo & Baby blanket products
How advertisement can create awareness for the packaged Sifo & baby blanket product and subsequently lead to an increase in the sales i.e. increase in the number of expecting mothers buying

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Low supply versus high demand for cotton because few farmers in West Nile grow cotton; amount of time spent in sorting the cotton seeds and limited sewing machines pause challenges to the successful full scaling of the initiative. However, in order to overcome these challenges, the team has adopted an in house and outgrower model in which team members are being encouraged to grow cotton and have assured market while the same is being done for external farmers; for limited sewing machines, the team plans to invest in more sewing machines over time as the demand for the product increases

File Upload

BabyKit Fact Sheet.pdf

iDrain

webadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:14:43 +0000

iDrain webadmin Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:14

Developed by Medsols Uganda Ltd, iDrain is a low-cost chest drainage device primarily designed for use in pleural effusion patients. The device can also be used for other suction procedures.

Introduction

The vision of Medsols (U) Ltd is innovation for a healthier world. Through research and innovation, we solve emerging and existing healthcare challenges.

Access to standard medical devices is still a big healthcare challenge in the developing world countries. According to WHO, almost 80% of the medical devices from the first world countries do not actually work in the developing world settings owing to the high cost of both the devices and consumables, lack of expertise to operate them and other factors. Thus to improve access to standard healthcare in such areas, innovations must be tailored to meet the specific needs at a cost most affordable to that specific population.

iDrain was developed to meet this need. On average, 10 patients every week are diagnosed with pleural effusion at a major referral hospital in Uganda. The ideal water under seal chest drainage devices aren’t available at these hospitals.

Progress & Results

Ideated in 2016, the iDrain device has undergone several prototyping stages. With funding from UNFPA under the first edition of the UpAccelerate program, we were able to develop the first prototype with help of consultants from Uganda Industrial Research institute.

The team also conducted an end user needs finding study and results showed a great need by doctors for the product. The team also applied for intellectual property rights (utility model) with URSB.

Further funding from the CAMTech Accelerator program enabled a partnership with Kasp3r Technologies in Nairobi-Kenya where a clinical trial ready product was developed. The testing at laboratory level with Kasp3r gave promising results.

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

A challenge in controlling pressure efficiently emerged from the first prototype. The challenge has been solved. However, challenges in realizing a working prototype increased costs of production which will affect the final cost of the device.

Among the lessons learnt, it is important to engage a wide range of consultants in developing medical devices. This helps in reducing the failure rates and reducing the costs involved during prototyping.

File Upload

iDrain Innovation Factsheet.pdf

EcoSmart Uganda

webadmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:00:57 +0000

EcoSmart Uganda webadmin Wed, 09/23/2020 - 11:00

The EcoSmart pads are innovative products produced by EcoSmart Uganda, a social enterprise that envisions a new era for every African girl and hopes to increase access to affordable menstrual health supplies for every female.

Introduction

EcoSmart aims at: reducing school absenteeism for girls that miss school during their menstruation, reducing waste generated from disposable sanitary pads by utilizing natural materials and providing employment through local production of the EcoSmart pads.

Globally, there are 1.8 billion females in their reproductive age; unfortunately, millions of these females across the world are still denied the right to manage their menstrual period with dignity. In Uganda, a nationwide survey showed that only 35% of females aged 15 to 49 years were able to adequately meet their needs during Menstruation. According to the World Bank, about 20% of the households in Uganda are below the national poverty line. Daily expenses of these households may not cater for the purchase of sanitary pads so sanitary pads are a luxury especially for women from rural areas and vulnerable communities like refugee camps. As an alternative, these females resort to rudimentary options such as the use of old pieces of cloth, old foam mattresses, toilet paper, cloth rags and so on. This lack of appropriate materials is a high contributor to the level of school absenteeism for many adolescent girls according to the Adolescent Health Risk behaviors study conducted in 2017.

Therefore, for the wellbeing of women and girls especially those in underserved communities, there is a great need to access basic affordable materials to utilize during their menstruation. EcoSmart is producing eco-friendly affordable sanitary pads made using repurposed sugarcane residue to help women from low income backgrounds with hygienic high quality products that create equality in menstrual management.

Progress and Results

Research and development of the EcoSmart pads has been executed to achieve a cotton feel like material for use in the pads. The organization has set up a local manufacturing facility in western Uganda and has progressed from using the Uganda Industrial Research Institute facility in the processing of the sugarcane fiber. The product testing and certification of the sanitary napkins from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is underway. The product package of the sanitary pads has been assessed and approved by UNBS.

A total of 152 school girls were trained in 2019 in western Uganda on menstrual health and the girls were provided with underwear supplies to support them as they undergo menstruation.

Our team has conducted a study in 55 primary schools in western Uganda around the menstrual environment in primary schools in rural western Uganda, the study revealed the use of latrines to wash and change sanitary pads; almost of these latrines had a bad stench, dirty walls, no privacy and no locks. The team obtained expression of interest to conduct menstrual trainings and education.

Our team has hired four employees to support in local production and day to day operational activities of the organization.

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

The production process has been challenging for the team, we have locally fabricated the production equipment used because this machinery is not available locally. This has consumed a lot of time. Moving forward, we are moving in to certification of the products which seems to consume a lot of time but the team is working with consultants to ensure that this product is safe for all users and meets the needs of the users.

File Upload

Ecosmart fact sheet.pdf

DigiHealth

webadmin — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 19:49:24 +0000

DigiHealth webadmin Tue, 09/22/2020 - 21:49

A mobile app and web-based platform that digitizes data management for health workers that conduct community health camps.

Introduction

DigiHealth Mobile is a mobile application and web based platform that digitizes the process of data collection for health workers that conduct community health camps. We are addressing the challenge of poor data management among development organisations in health using an improved low-cost set of digital tools focused on improving data collection, analysis and visualization in remote areas in order to drive better decision making.

With the intervention of DigiHealth Mobile, the community health workers simply carry a smart phone or tablet instead of the large book and use these to record the patient data during the health camps. During this process, they are also able to access patient histories and also easily do referrals while in the field at the click of a button. This information is then sent to a dashboard where reports are generated and the information displayed in various charts as required by the health facility. The dashboard also displays aggregated patient data in form of statistics which can be used to make projection and plan for upcoming health camps. We built the app to function in the field without internet access since most of these health camps are carried out in remote areas with limited access to the internet.

Progress and Results

We came up with the idea of DigiHealth after seeing first hand how front-line health care providers were struggling to collect and mange patient data whenever they went out to offer health services to the most vulnerable in our communities.

With the seed fundig received from UNFPA through Outbox, we were able to register a company, conduct research, develop and test an MVP. We conducted users experience testing and training in Mengo Hospital and 4 health facilities in Bushenyi managed by Bushenyi Integrated Rural Development Fund.

Since then we have been able to train more healthcare providers and conduct further user experience tests to stream line our system to their needs. These training sessions were done in Mayanja Memorial hospital and Galilee Community Hospital in Masanafu. These facilities are currently using the platform on trial basis as we finalize partnership talks. We have also developed a hospital management system for Malaika Clinics in Nigeria (http://clinics.malaikahgroup.com/auth/login).

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

The biggest lesson learnt so far has been that health care providers, no matter how far they are in the villages, are willing to learn and adopt technology based solutions to ease their work. We have also learnt that innovation is not a one time process, we need to keep evolving the system to fit he changing needs of our target customers.

Challenges: some facilities lack the necessary hardware to adopt the solution like computers, tablets etc. Getting the foot through the door for a start-up company is hard in some of the facilities.

If you would like to know more about Digihealth Mobile, check out the resources below:

Website: www.digihealth.ug

Documentation: http://hmis.infoclan.co/
This fact sheet was developed, with thanks, by:

Jacqueline Mutumba
Team Lead
DigiHealth Limited
Tel. +256794631450
Email. jacquem101@gmail.com

File Upload

DigiHealth Fact Sheet.pdf

DRUGDASH

webadmin — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:50:36 +0000

DRUGDASH webadmin Tue, 09/22/2020 - 14:50

A web and mobile application that enables District Health Officers at the lower administrative levels to see and understand real-time information/data on the stock status of health care commodities and supplies between various health facilities so that they can make accurate and timely decisions on how to redistribute stock, leading to limited or no wastage and stock-outs thus increasing the availability of these commodities and supplies in the healthcare system.

Introduction

DrugDash is a web and mobile application that enables District Health Officers at the lower administrative levels to see and understand real-time information/data on the stock status of health care commodities and supplies between various health facilities so that they can make accurate and timely decisions on how to redistribute stock, leading to limited or no wastage and stock-outs thus increasing the availability of these commodities and supplies in the healthcare system.

DrugDash is focused on enabling local health system health workers, in this case, a District Health Office to make timely decisions on redistribution by enabling them to use data at the point of generation (in this case a Service delivery point). DrugDash is not a supply chain ordering system, it is a decision support system. Unlike other systems, we focus on driving decisions on redistribution at the service delivery points -- not after reporting to the National health system level.

Progress and Results

In the initial pilot in early 2018, we were able to deploy in 9 facilities and we worked with 30 health workers. We kept track of 35 essential medicines and supplies and we had an average reporting rate of 3 times a month per facility.

We have since then deployed a functional digital prototype of DrugDash in twenty-five (25) public health facilities in Eastern Uganda. This includes eight (8) in Kween district, six (6) facilities in Bukedea district and eleven (11) facilities in Bulambuli district with a collective population of up-to 480,000 people of which 70% were health centre IIIs and 30% health centre VIs. This deployment allowed us to track up-to twelve (12) Family planning commodities in partnership with Ministry of Health, UNFPA and Outbox

We are working to deploy in two more districts in Northern Uganda.

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

We have learnt that East Africa's health system is largely driven by open source tools. We intend to focus more on open sourcing our product and leveraging customisations as a key revenue driver compared to recurring revenues. For the minimal recurring revenues, we shall scale out gradually and as such learn more about acceptable price points.

More about DrugDash

If you would like to know more about DrugDash, check out the resources below or contact:
Website: www.drugdash.org. This fact sheet was developed, with thanks, by:

Mr. Solomon Kahuma
Co-founder
DrugDash
Tel. +256778841383/+256794013200 Email. skahuma@gmail.com

File Upload

DRUGDASH Fact Sheet.pdf