And so the journey begins…Today was the first of many productive days here in Makeni. After fueling up with eggs and bread for breakfast, the AISHA team ventured to World Hope International to get started! We met in the conference room and began to brainstorm some of our goals for the next three weeks.
AISHA aims to use the conversational abilities of Amazon Alexa technology to provide an educational resource for nurses and doctors in low-resource peripheral health units. We have 2 main use cases, AISHA Lessons and AISHA Answers. AISHA Answers has vetted responses in 50+ health areas and 1,000 + curated questions with answers from trusted medical sources. On the other hand, AISHA Lessons are interactive 5-10 minute tutorials on healthcare topics, which enables rural clinic staff to educate communities on prevalent issues such as HPV or Malaria. All lessons are sourced credibly from WHO, UN, and Sierra Leone Health Ministry sources.
The goal of our fieldwork project is to do device and usability testing in order to validate our model. Additionally, our team aims to understand the needs of PHUs/Hospitals in order to better adapt and mould our model to better suit the needs of the community. Moreover, the AISHA team will explore new use cases in which our device can make an impact and establish long-lasting partnerships and connections with the local community in Makeni, which may help us expand in the future. Lastly, our main goal is to set up a longer pilot initiative in Makeni with hospitals, PHUs and the DMO.
Some specific things that we will focus on in the first week are: debugging AISHA lessons and answers, participating in at least one community health day, and finding ways to incorporate AISHA in the PHUs in a way that would be the most impactful and easy for the user. We spent much of the day in the office getting a kickstart on tackling these challenges.
Later on, we had the honour of speaking to Edwin, who works for World Hope International on a team that has been working on a diagnostic project for cervical cancer. Edwin emphasized the importance of education on the connection between HPV and cervical cancer. His team is utilizing a device made with vinegar to detect early stages of cervical cancer in mothers. Their team has made significant progress; women who test positive the first time often test negative at their second checkup, demons trating the device’s effectiveness and the importance of early intervention. Edwin also mentioned that their project includes mobile clinics and community workshops to educate mothers about the early signs of cervical cancer and HPV. This is definitely something that AISHA lessons can help with, by providing education and awareness. Edwin has invited usto join him for one of his community outreach days!
Picture of the AISHA team with Edwin
In the afternoon, the team had the privilege of visiting the Makump Bana Peripheral Healthcare Unit. Under the guidance of Mabinty, the primary nurse at the unit, the AISHA and the Maternal Health team visited the neighbouring village. We walked around, meeting many villagers and viewing the local primary school. Back at the clinic, the AISHA team listened intently as the Maternal Health team asked Mabinty and her fellow nurses questions about maternal healthcare. This allowed the team to gain a better understanding on the role of the Makump Bana PHU in providing quality healthcare to expectant mothers and the challenges that are faced along the way. A major challenge Mabinty described was transportation and the cost of medicine. However, despite these challenges, the women made sure to get their monthly check-ups.
Once the Maternal Health team had their questions answered, the AISHA team jumped in with some of the questions that had come up during the brainstorming session this morning. We inquired about the number of healthcare workers in the clinic, common diseases PHUs encounter, stock of medicine, etc. We had some very valuable insights in which we were informed that there were around 5 nurses working in the clinic and that one of the most common diseases in PHUs is Malaria. Mabinty also informed us that the previous HPV campaign ended and that now they are pushing a Malarial campaign, in which children under the age of 6 months must get vaccinated. She also mentioned that rates for all diseases have been declining in recent years, which is significant progress that shows the resilience and hard work of the people in Sierra Leone!
Picture of the AISHA team at Makump Bana
Tomorrow we plan on validating our Krio translations, through this we wish to identify whether the error we encountered today was due to the text translation, or the pronunciation generated by the trained model. Along with this, we hope to receive some responses from our other in-country contacts and set up meetings to demo/discuss AISHA. Another urgent task is securing the MIFI devices, and testing out the system set-up.