Create Jira Ticket
This idea cannot be sent to Jira.
AI enabled APP that provides Sexual and Reproductive Health Services during COVID-19
The AI enabled APP is to be used by trained Community Health Workers, who will screen women during the pandemic for COVID-19. They will also provide sexual health information to women of reproductive age (15-49) years, about Family Planning and a wide range of choices.The will give advice, on how to access FP, HIV services, Antenatal Care services. The AI enabled APP to be used even after the pandemic.The AI enabled APP interface will have USSD/SMS/Internet link based on the convenience of the end users.The diversity is meant to enable serving users in the rural and urban areas. The interface will have Sexual and Reproductive Health education tips in the form of videos and texts. In addition, mental health support. The AI Sexual and Reproductive Health Chatbot to be programmed and understand which questions it should answer.They will be Doctors forum in which unanswered questions from AI will be referred to.The basic data for the target group, women of reproductive age(15-49) years, to be obtained from the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Tanzania Bureau of Statistics.The features and functions of AI enabled APP will be achieved through the validation process, by working in partnership with different actors: the health care system providers, clients, researchers and regulators.Along with, they will be a formative and summative evaluation process.Sustainability, will be achieved through active participation and collaboration of different stakeholders and successfully partnerships.Apparently, we will be working on the blank business model framework to achieve the business model.
Points to consider: 1) Training of the target group on how to access and use the APP. 2) Age of consent for girls and women below 18 years.
According to the Population Distribution by Age and Sex Report (TZ) 2012 ; Women of reproductive age population(15-49) is 10, 905,117 in Tanzania mainland and 339,007 in Zanzibar.( See the attachment)The target group comes from diverse background: urban, and rural settings, from streets, drop out from schools, students, employed, self employed and unemployed.Ranging from single, married, unmarried and cohabiting.
Problems that has led to me to come up with the above idea are;
1)Lack or inaccurate sexual health information to the target group.
2)Increase in adolescent childbearing among 15 years old.
3)Unmet need for contraception, for the target group.
4) Limited access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services due to stigma, cultural factors and health care providers bias.
State your goals
1. Providing sexual health information to the women of reproductive age (15-49) years.
2.To provide information on Family Planning and a wide range of choices so that the women(15-49) years can make informed decision.
3.To facilitate accessing Family Planning supplies, HIV services, Antenatal Care services despite the restrictive measures during COVID-19, even after the pandemic.
4.To have two way communication with Doctors on the forum for professional help.
What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
Resources have been diverted from the Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in order to respond to the pandemic COVID-19.This has put women and girls at risk, because of shortage that has limited them, the ability to secure sexual and reproductive health services and other health promotion services.Some have faced shortages in their essential medicines.
What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?
Gaps still exist within programs that target both knowledge and behavior change in the sexual activities of adolescents.(1)Currently, far to few young people are receiving adequate preparation which leaves them vulnerable to coercion, abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections including HIV.(2)Young people have special and reproductive health needs because of their relatively high risk of being exposed to inaccurate or incomplete information, which leads them to acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, pregnancies and maternal complications.( Rani and Lule 2004) In 2000, 29% of the population in developing countries was of adolescent age, in the least developed countries accounted for 32% of the population.(3)The unmet need for contraceptives among adolescents, however, is more than twice that of married women.(4) Married adolescents often do not want a pregnancy, but have low contraceptive rates: in fact, recent data have shown that current use of contraceptives is often lower among sexually active, married adolescents.(5) Unmet need for both married and unmarried adolescents is therefore extremely high.(6) Despite the wide range of available contraceptive products, many unplanned pregnancies continue to occur each year. Many of the undesired pregnancies could be avoided if the unmet need for contraception estimated to 25% in Sub Saharan Africa was met. (7) Like many countries in Sub Saharan Africa, Tanzania's once successful family planning program has slowed markedly, with the rate of contraceptive prevalence well below levels needed to reach current demand and country goals.(8) In Tanzania, 34.4% of married women in 2010 reported use of any method of contraception, while modern methods reached a prevalence of 27.4% .(9) Of concern, however, is the increase in adolescent childbearing among 15 years old girls, which rose from 3.7% in 2004 to 5.2% in 2010, a pregnancy rate among children that is too high.(10) About 70,000 adolescents in developing countries die annually of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth(UNICEF,2008).Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for older adolescents.(WHO,2012) Research suggests that current contraceptive use prevents approximately 272,000 maternal mortalities per year, and if current family planning needs were met, another 104,000 lives would not be lost (11), many of which would be adolescent ''lives'' saved .With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, health services and commodities have been overlooked, women continue to require family planning , menstrual health supplies and maternal care.Staff and resources are allocated towards critical care services, away from maternal services.It is a worrying time for pregnant women in need of routine health services.Using our AI enabled APP, we will be able to reach even , the hard to reach women from diverse background.Reducing the unintended pregnancies will help break the poverty cycle but also return the investment in further education, political stability and higher access to labor market in the future.(Bearing et al, 2007)
References: 1)Glasier A et al, Sexual and reproductive: a matter of life and death, Lancet, 2006, 368(9547);1595-1607
2)The UNAIDS, 2008 Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic.
3)IAWG on the Role of Community Involvement in ASRH Community Pathways to Improve Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health A Conceptual Framework and Suggested Outcome Indicators : December 2007.
4) Population Council, Family Health International, Ethical Approaches to A Gathering information from Children and Adolescents in International Settings, 2005.
5)Blanc A K, Tsui AO, Croft T N, Trevitt J L, Patterns and trends in adolescents'' contraceptive use and discontinuation in developing countries and comparison with adult women.Int Perspect sec Reprodu Health 2009:35(2);63-71
6) Chandra -Mouli V, Mc Carraher DR, Phillips S J, Williamson NE, Hainsworth G.Contraception for adolescents in low and middle income countries; needs, barriers and access. Reprod Health 2014 11 (1) ; 1
7) Sedgh G, Hussain R, Bankole A, Singh S. Women with unmet need for contraception in Developing countries and their reasons for not using a method.New York Guttmacher. Institute, 2007.
8)FHI 360 PROGRESS in Tanzania: National Family Planning Costed Implementation Program.(Retrieved 2 Sept 2014).
9) Health in Tanzania .Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.abcdefghi(USAID(2010) Demographic and Health Survey-Retrieved 2 Sept 2014.
10) Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Adolescent Reproductive Health Strategy 2010-2015.
11) Ahmed S, Li Q, Liu L, Tsui A O. Maternal deaths averted by contraceptive use: an analysis of 172 countries, Lancet 2012;380(9837):111-25
Share your story (your narrative)
Being a Medical Doctor for a number of years, practicing in the Sub-Saharan Africa( Tanzania, Lesotho, South Africa) and Trinidad, on several occasions, in the emergency room, I came across young girls and women, presenting with heavy vaginal bleeding in critical condition, some of them, end up dying, others, may survive with complications. Only to find out, they are "aborting". Most of them, do not disclose what really had happened. I addressed the emergency situation, when, the patient is stable and well in less than a week discharge her/them. Because of the work overload and shortage of staff in the region, there is no time for educating them on sexual health. What can be offered or adviced to them, is to go via the Family Planning clinic.Most of them, do not go to the FP clinic, then, it becomes a "vicious cycle".There is no proper follow up system.With the COVID-19 pandemic, the health systems in many countries are forced to allocate staff and resources towards critical care services and away from other areas of care e.g maternal services.It becomes a worrying time for women who are pregnant and in need of routine health services.My desire has been to reach these young women, using technology, so that,they can receive sexual health information and also have easy access to the Family Planning, HIV Services etc.
Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.
who.int/reproductive health/publications/emergencies/COVID-19-SRH/en
Tanzania Population, Reproductive Health and Development 348-Tz-RAPID
Your Final Proposal for challenge
yes
Dear Eunice,
Thank you for submitting your application to the ITU's ''Women in technology Challenge"!
Can you please expend more on what is your connection with the idea? Why are you motivated to solve this issues?
Also, can you give more explanation on how you can make the idea sustainable? What is the business model behind? What are your main stakeholders?
Thank you and good luck!
Silvia
Users tagged:
You have described your project very nicely. Undoubtedly, this service will bring benefits to women. My only concern is, how can a women get your service in areas where they have no mobile phone or internet connection? I think you should add some solutions to think of women in rural areas. Because women in rural areas are more deprived of this type of service than in urban areas.
Sounds more like an SRH chatbot which is also able to provide referral services if it's a case it cannot advice on, also able to offer video call examination by a standby SRH care provider in real-time likely under a subscription basis. Nice idea
Eunese, I like the problem your solving here. Its needed.
First, it sound like this idea has been in your heart or development prior to covid as covid has the add on.
It sound that your solving a bigger issue which is providing resources to woman in need or rural areas, using AI to make better and faster decisions for doctors like you to the public. AI is has be trained, is woman your focus? woman with children? in you case, How does AI help without validated "rural" data?
I like your project concept, But I am afraid about mobile internet. Who will be your end user and how they access the app. As you focused on COVID 19 situation, I think you can add mental health support also because it's very important for women.
This will help women especially at this season of pandemic ,you will have to prepare a good business model to ensure sustainability of your business even after the pandemic and concerning the mobile internet app you will have to educate women in the rural on how they can access and use your app so that they can benefit too
I suggest a Doctors' forum be implemented in the app so that women can ask their questions directly to doctors instead of an AI. Also the AI should be able to understand which questions it should answer and which to forward to the Doctors' forum.
For women in rural areas, a call center service or missed call service can be implemented where the AI handles several calls using Session Initiation Protocol or call centres are used for receiving the questions.
Users tagged:
The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.
Status label added: Community feedback received
Status label added: Expert feedback received
Status label removed: Expert feedback received
Status label added: Mentor feedback received
Dear Eunice,
I commend your effort as a doctor for recognizing the need for remote sexual and reproductive health services and for taking action to address the challenge of educating young girls. I think your idea is an excellent use case for an AI chatbot since it can give young girls tailored answers to their questions; however, I am of the opinion that you need to revise the structure of your proposal so that is easier for your audience to read and understand. Think about the order in which you want to present your idea so that it flows logically from one point to the next. I believe your solution has great potential but you have to communicate it well. Here are 4 key questions/areas to address in your proposal:
1. Do you have a 'Minimum Viable Product' or prototype and if yes, have you tested it?
2. How do you intend to reach your target market and what challenges you are likely to encounter?
3. What is your business model? In other words, how will you generate revenue and manage expenses?
4. How are you going to know that your solution is making difference?
Status label added: Expert feedback received
@Eunice, Great Initiative. One of the most popular section for the teleconsultation app I am working on in Myanmar is women health issues. Does your application allow anonymity. What we faced sometime is because of being a conservative society women are more comfortable is they know the conversation is anonymous.
Hi Eunice
Thank you very much for sharing your idea.
You use story telling very well to create a powerful narrative. It is hard to argue with the need for your app to support women in Tanzania with a range of sexual and reproductive health issues they are facing. The statistics on the number of adolescent deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth complications is shocking. There must be many thousands of others that suffer from debilitating long-term health issues as a result as well.
Along with some of the other commentators I would suggest your application could be strengthened by some more clarity around the tech/MVP/prototype. Perhaps you could look to partner with a tech developer interested in social impact.
The other area that needs addressing as others have said is the business case to enable you to secure funding in the first instance and sustainability thereafter. Through your statistics and resources if you can prove that funding the app will save money spent in treating the young girls and women and enables them to be productive and add to the economy then government funding could be sourced. A pilot of the tech could lead to it being used in other developing countries and could become a revenue stream.
There has been some very sound advice given to you in the comments section and it appears that your idea is continuing to develop. I wish you every success in this project because it is a terrible shame that what little money that was being spent on women’s sexual and reproductive health is suffering because of Covid-19.
Good luck
Carolyn
You may now start filling up the final submission form and reach out to any mentors if you're stuck. Best wishes!
Users tagged:
Hi Eunice,
This is a great idea but i have few concerns that you might need to take into consideration
1. As you have informed that you will be using AI enabled app and as you also know Tanzanian rural situations, most people don't have access digital tools such smartphones, laptops , ipads and also don't have knowledge on operating them. How will you be going to handle such situation whilst providing them with your solution?
2. One of my most concern in health apps is privacy of users' health information as well as data protection. How can you ensure this in app considering there are a lot of cyber attacks that aims at information leakage?
3. From my understanding, sexual and reproductive topic in Tanzania is a bit challenging especially in rural areas due to traditional view and ideologies, How are you going to approach this issue in order to successfully implement this project?
Hello Eunice, this is a brilliant idea we need more passionate people like you, awesome job. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General’s has emphasized that “All countries must strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights”. And this is definitely what you are doing in balancing that strike. All the best
Status label added: Submission completed