South Africa - Business creation project

Describe your project or startup in a few words

We have created an automated Mobile Doctor application that solves issues related to accurate insulin administration in the less literate public sector. We are also solving for the patient digital record integration among different hospitals/provinces.

01.01 Describe your project in more detail

Our project is a cutting-edge automated mobile doctor application specifically designed to address the critical needs of diabetes management within the public health sector of South Africa. Diabetes is a pervasive and challenging condition, especially in resource-limited settings. South Africa is resource-limited as it is both understaffed on the doctor side, and costly on the patient side. We aim to give doctors (and the other medical practitioners involved in the care of diabetes) more time on one side, while lowering costs of treatment and care on the other side. Using the application we have built (the minimum viable product is ready), we aim to streamline and enhance diabetes care by offering comprehensive solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing healthcare systems, provide precise insulin management, and support daily diabetes care for Type 1 patients (primarily). Our solution is a frugal technology that can easily be scaled across Africa, which has similar problems.

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

Diabetes management presents several significant challenges in South Africa's public healthcare sector: Integration with Provincial Healthcare Systems: The public health infrastructure is fragmented, with disparate systems across different provinces. This lack of integration hampers the continuity of care and complicates patient management for healthcare providers. Accurate Insulin Management: Effective diabetes management requires precise calculation of insulin dosages, which can be complex due to the need for titration and individualized patient needs. Daily Management of Type 1 Diabetes: Patients with Type 1 diabetes face daily challenges, including monitoring blood glucose levels, adjusting insulin doses, and managing dietary and lifestyle factors. Our solution tackles all these problems head-on with an innovatively simple design that keeps in mind that fancy features some diabetes applications offer quite simply can't serve the less educated South African (and Africans at large)

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your project intends to provide (at least 3).

1. Lower costs - This can be quantified on both the medical practitioner's side, and equally on the patient's side. Knowing what an average doctor/practitioner cost is per hour, we can compute just how much money we save the Department of Health by patients going less to hospitals and clinics in rand terms. When it comes to patients, our surveys and insights reveal the costs per month can be as high as R4000, with transport also a big part of it. With better management and less visits, this cost can be lowered significantly. 2. Accurate care - The majority of severe hypoglycaemic episodes (53.2%) can be attributed to inappropriate dosing based on a study report that indicated a staggering 54.3% of adults with type 1 had experienced such an episode in the last 3 months. Our auto calculation feature would help with this urgent problem. 3. Integration - by centralising all patient profile information in our comprehensive platform which doctors can access from anywhere with ease.

01.04 Please describe who exactly your project is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

1. Medical Practitioners - we have partnered with some doctors in trying to understand their struggles and they are very excited about our solution. They believe this can be expanded to some other diseases where the same algorithmic logic can be computed and applied. This would save them even more time. 2. Patients and their family members - We are targeting the public sector primarily, which accounts for 84% of the medical health sector. With high illiteracy levels in the country among many of the older patients, we have build the app with the aim of a simple UI design they can understand. 3. The national department of health - end-to-end integration at a national level has been a problem for a long time. This will assist in alleviating the problem and moving to the espoused result.

01.05 When did you start working on your project?

2022-09-03

01.06 How many other partners are associated with your business venture?

4

01.07 Among the other partners, how many are female?

0

01.08 Please describe the profile of each of the other partners (skills, experience, etc.)

Gerald Tivyati (Founder): Bachelor of Engineering, Stellenbosch University. With over 10 years of experience in building software enveloped by an entrepreneurial spirit, Gerald heads the team and has built the product on first-hand compassion. Vincent Mahloko (Co-Founder): Investment & Financial Management, Stellenbosch University, & MBA from HEC Paris. An MBA holder from HEC Paris with a heart for operational efficiency that he developed in his role at Allan Gray as a Senior Ops leader. Vincent sees the big picture and puts the legos in place to get there. Experienced in leading teams to build tech products. Anro le Roux (CTO): Masters in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering (Cum Laude), Stellenbosch University - Anro’s heart for precision and quality makes him the ideal CTO for a product that requires nothing but the highest standards in healthcare. Anathi Swaphi (Head of Quality Assurance): 5 years experience in Quality Assurance at many tech companies, and now at Capitec.

01.09 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link here:

01.10 Which industry best describes your project?

f) Healthcare (healthcare equipment and services)

02.01.01 My project contributes to the No poverty goal

4

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification

02.02.01 My project contributes to the Zero hunger goal

3

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification

02.03.01 My project contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification

Through better management of a disease that is problematic across the whole world.

02.04.01 My project contributes to the Quality education goal

4

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification

02.05.01 My project contributes to the Gender equality goal

4

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification

Not applicable

02.06.01 My project contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification

02.07.01 My project contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification

02.08.01 My project contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification

Doctors, who are understaffed, will benefit from having this application in the industry.

02.09.01 My project contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

6

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification

A one of a kind innovation product not currently on the market.

02.10.01 My project contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

5

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification

Generally, the West and EU have advanced healthcare systems. This will help

02.11.01 My project contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

3

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification

02.12.01 My project contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

4

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification

02.13.01 My project contributes to the Climate action goal

5

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification

02.14.01 My project contributes to the Life below water goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification

02.15.01 My project contributes to the Life on land goal

4

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification

02.16.01 My project contributes to the Peace justice and strong institutions goal

4

02.16.02 Peace justice and strong institutions - Justification

02.17.01 My project contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

4

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification

05.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

6

05.02 The product/service we envision creating represents an entirely new type of product/service.

5

05.03 The product/service we envision creating could be described as a new technology.

6

05.04 The product/service we envision creating is an improvement on an existing product or service.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.05 The product/service we envision creating could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

6

05.06 The product/service we envision creating responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

7 - Strongly Agree

05.07 The product/service we envision creating is a new version of an old product/service.

5

05.08 Justification

In as much as diabetes care products are around, in the South Africa market they don't always address the needs mentioned earlier regarding illiteracy. And our auto calculation components will be the first of its kind innovation, particularly for the mobile doctor realm as most products in this space focus on tele consultations with doctors, not actually being able to do doctor specific tasks with no need for a doctor to get involved.

05.09 Who are your main potential competitors and what makes you stand out from them?

Some players in the "Mobile Doctor" space include WhatsupDoctor, Hello Doctor, and Discovery Health. They are more than anything online consultation platforms, so they will not be doing the doctor-specific pieces I mentioned we are aiming at providing. Glucose Buddy, mySugar and AccuCheck are big players in the mobile sensor and day to day diabetes management space. Their apps however are a bit complex for the local South African market which we are targeting. They also do not do a lot of the end to end integration we are aiming at solving for.

10.06 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?

I have not