Here's my story: Why, how Covid made it worse & motivation

I have for a long time worried a lot about my parents, but mostly when they complained now and then about their health. After each visit to the hospital, there was (and still is) absolutely no contact again whatsoever between my parents and the healthcare providers, so no follow up, no continues healthcare, nothing, not even an option to rate the service received nor access to our very own medical data with which we could access any alternative convenient professional healthcare service. We are forced to stay home and live our lives as usual until health concerns are serious before we visited the hospital (doctor) again for a check-up and then the cycle continues. This is the same with me, my friends and their families, and the rest of the entire Ghanaian population, Africa, and perhaps, the rest of the world. I wished I could contract a private doctor to offer us the attention needed in between hospital visits so we could hopefully avoid the hospital visits in the first place. But I didn't have the money nor resources to afford such a dedicated service. So I had to think of a way out.

Inspired by my belief that our existence as human beings, knowledge, worth, technology and all the skill we have are worth nothing until it makes a positive impact in the lives of others and society, I managed to convince a couple of my friends, a group of healthcare professionals who are passionate about making an impact in society to start a charity, with or without the resources or support. They also convinced their friends to come on board. This gave birth to Eudemonia International Foundation which was established as a registered charity/NGO in Ghana in 2017 to create continues healthcare to bridge this gap for our families and others in a similar situation, and also to extend care to those who need it most but hardly visit the hospital for reasons best known to them (some of which we can guess: access, affordability, awareness, deprived locations, etc).

PS: Eudemonia means complete wellness, wellbeing or happiness as the result of an active life governed by reason.

So far we have organized two successful non-communicable diseases (NCDs) screening via mobile mini-clinics that provided all the services one would access in a hospital environment. The first was in 2017 in Community 4, located in Tema municipal community within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana on the 6th of March 2017, a public holiday. Out of the over 200 people who volunteered to benefit from the free exercise, 16 were referred to the Tema General Hospital for further care with one rushed in for urgent care due to her critical state identified by the doctors. The second was organised in Madina May3hot, a suburb also located in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana on the 1st of May 2018. Out of the 183 people who volunteered to benefit from the free exercise, 6 were referred to the nearest hospital for further checks due to concerns identified by the doctor.

Our activities were a success until we realised we cannot sustain it with our own funding nor extend the reach of our community service to anywhere beyond our immediate vicinities with our limited resources. We equally found it difficult to justify a solid sustainability roadmap to earn us the funding needed to keep us going. COVID19 made it worse. So we came up with Medocta (my/medical doctor) as a technology-based web and mobile app solution to our challenge. A tool to connect every household in Ghana with their healthcare provider(s) or freelance doctors and nurses. A tool to virtualise our service reaching more homes at the same time with less workforce and related resources.

Medocta has medication refill and intake reminders, weight and diet tracker with lifestyle goals, blood pressure and diabetic sugar level logging and monitoring with GPS enabled alert triggers that notify emergency contacts and healthcare provider's urgent care and support teams for immediate assistance. It also has an online pharmacy, an E-store to digitally purchase products that help one to manage their health, has on-demand home care consultation and diagnostic service request. Healthcare professionals can review this data remotely anytime and make informed decisions to act anytime. The predictive algorithm can help with the early detection, prevention and management of NCD conditions. The app is free to download on both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store and so are the services in the app as well. Since we couldn't afford the cost of development, I've had to roll up my sleeve, teach myself how to code mobile and web apps/software and currently developing it myself on behalf of my team for the benefit of our families and the rest of Ghana. The tech companies are run by human beings just like me. I don't have to sacrifice my mortgage, kill the dream nor commit a crime to afford their expensive project estimates. I have the same tools they have (internet and computer). If they can develop, I can too. Hello Obama ??. Gladly, the MVP1 is almost ready with the initial release already on both Google Play Store and Apple's AppStore as controlled internal test releases. Kindly share your email with me in the chat or at [email protected] if you are interested in the beta and production-ready tests and interested as well in going on the journey to reality with us.

I published the BMI module late last year on Google PlayStore for user feedback on its main features. Do check it out and feedback, please.

Kindly contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in the solution as a corporate partner, health service provider or household end user.

To ensure Eudemonia Int.'s community health activities is self-sustaining and forever free for all to use, we have made the home consultation and diagnostics request and telehealth services a subsidised premium service for those who are interested while the other core features remain free to use to encourage the use of the service.

My team and I can't wait to see ourselves and our families especially our parents and kids get the follow-up services and continues health care we have all long-awaited. The go-to-market has been very slow due to our limited resources (funding for research and development especially). So kindly reach out and/or spread the word to support us finish what we have started and to sustain it. We need all the support we can get: in-kind, grant(s), funding competition(s), corporate social responsibility partnership(s), donation(s), coaching, mentorship, or advice on the best way to make positive social healthcare impacts in Ghana and beyond, one household at a time.

Kindly donate here: https://www.givingway.com/organization/eudemonia-international-foundation

Below are the pictures and testimonial videos from the different community healthcare NCD screenings. The net promoter score from our community services has always been 10 and nothing less and this is our most important Objective and Key Result (OKR), to be proactive with customer success (O) by keeping our monthly churn rates to at most 1% (KR1) while increasing subscriber base as much as we can at least 10% month on month (KR2).

The video below was the feedback from Dr Abrokwa, one of our consultants.

The video below was the feedback from Dr Anita Ndaa, one of our consultants

The rest of the videos are feedback from the beneficiaries

Feedback from the video above: Many thanks to your group, it helps participants to know the status of their health. One concern though is that the technology aspect being proposed might not favour we the aged, but ideal for the millennials. My humble suggestion to you is to kindly extend the service to those in the remote deprived areas as well, like the villages because they have really been left out and would appreciate such a service too.

Feedback from the above video: "This has been a great experience and would encourage you to continue and repeat it for us"

Feedback from the video above: "This is a very good service your group have rendered to us. Through this, someone can identify concerns at an early stage and prevent/manage his/her health early. If you can, kindly conduct similar ones regularly at least every three months. keep up the good work. Thank you"

Feedback from the above video: "The program is really good. It helps you know your health status and how to manage your diet. I think if you continue it will really go a long way because a lot of people out there do not know their health statuses so it is important to continue"

Feedback from the above video: "The experience has been very good. It helps us to understand our health situation to make informed decisions on how to live in a healthy way to prolong our lives, especially at old age. So I suggest you continue. It is very good and helpful"

Feedback from the above video: "A friend called to inform me of what's happening here and I'm glad I came. What you guys are doing is very good and I encourage you to continue"

Feedback from the above video: "This has really been helpful. You need to continue"

Feedback from the above video: "You have done very good. This hasn't been the case so we appreciate you extending care this way to us. We appreciate. Kindly continue this for us." 2nd respondent: "We have been able to have enough time with the doctors to express our concerns much better unlike the hospital setting where one doesn't get enough time and is rushed out without much detail or interaction because of time and pressure. The patient/customer care has been exceptional."

Feedback from the video above (our volunteer coordinator for this event): "I am not happy with the turnout because this area has more numbers to attend than this. I think subsequently we need to do more publicity so the numbers will be as expected. All the same, this has been great mainly because this exercise has provided all the services in a hospital setting and has been delivered exceptionally, something novel compared to what we have experienced from others, and needs to continue."

Feedback from the above video: "This is a very interesting and important programme. I didn't expect to see all these resources available. But I am very impressed with your doctors and other health professionals level of professionalism and friendliness. You need to continue. I think you should do this more often"

Feedback from the above video: "We are grateful, my age and they treated me I am very happy. I think this should continue. I wasn't even charged a pesewa"

Feedback from the above video: "This is very very good, especially for we the aged. It is very very essential and should be continued."

Feedback from the above video: "Surprisingly the A to Z service was free which is really good. Thank you and kindly continue"