AISHA’s Thursday began with the team splitting up first thing in the morning. Natalie and Juliana proceeded to the Midwifery School with the Mothers of Sierra Leone team straight from the hotel while the others savored their breakfast for a bit longer.

Juliana and Natalie headed to Midwifery with the purpose of interviewing students and obtaining an idea of their usual routines as well as any problems encountered with their education that AISHA could address. The visit provided the team with useful information. We learned the routine study methodology of the students which encompassed quizzing each other, utilizing Google to learn new topics, explaining complications to each other, and solitary study. All of these were practicies in which our product could come in handy, furthering the education of the students. The visit was a success for our team as we obtained a valuable insight into which sector needs refining and how AISHA could play a part in that by including their course topics into our database, utilizing AISHA’s quizzing skill, etc.

Following Midwifery, Juliana and Natalie joined up with Vrushti and headed to Loreta Hospital for a meeting with Sister Adama to evaluate AISHA’s potential in Loreta. They also met her intern, Sister Victoria (different one), and introduced the project to them once again. The conclusions drawn from the meeting were very positive as both Sister Adama and Sister Victoria were enthralled by the device, reaffiriming its usage as a conveyor of medical information. For the AISHA team, Loreta Hospital checks a lot of the requirements for our product’s usage. Furthermore, leaving the device in the capable hands of a rare mental health specialist is a very appealing concept as well.

Nat, Jules and Vrushti with Sister Victoria and Sister Adama at Loreto

During the ongoing meeting at Loreta, the rest of our team including Maaz, Gabriela, and Simone had formed another group to visit Brenda Hospital. Brenda is a wealthy, private hospital in Makeni catering to the needs of patients to a better extent than Makeni Regional owing to its experienced staff, expansive resources including technology, and a better treatment structure all of which contribute to a patient’s wellbeing. AISHA met with the co-founder of the hospital, Dr. Brimah. The experienced doctor was a well educated individual running the hospital while also providing his medical services to patients.

Dr. Brimah welcomed us into his office and we proceeded to explain the purpose and functionalities of our product. He seemed very intrigued by the concept and provided us with important information, primarily that they have Wi-Fi available in the hospital, eliminating our need for the Mi-Fi in Brenda which is a massive advantage. In addition, he also informed us that the hospital does have interns, as well as a C.H.O (Community Health Officer). Leaving a favorable impression on the doctor, we proceeded to interview the C.H.O named Abu Bakr and the intern named Margaret. These interviews were similar to the ones we had conducted before with interns as both of them were left impressed by the concept. Although Margaret did not speak much, she did validate our belief in AISHA’s ability. Abu Bakr, on the other hand, informed us of his duties as a C.H.O incorporating outreach days, healthcare delivery, and other activities. He claimed that the device could be valuable in his outreach days as the rural community idolizes the technology of the West and seem to trust it. He was interested in using the device for personal learning as well. Since we did not have the Alexas on us, we agreed to another meeting at Brenda to demo our product and left for Masuba Clinic where we were supposed to join up with Vrushti, Juliana, and Natalie.

At Masuba, we had an appointment with Nurse Adama (different one) at 2:00 p.m. AISHA was surprised however when they saw a whole marching band incorporating all kinds of instruments stride into the clinic. Apparently, it was Nurse Adama’s birthday! As we did not want to intrude on an auspicious occasion, we wished her a happy birthday, took pictures with her, and stepped out of the celebration.

After returning to the office, AISHA began to work on designing an evaluation rubrik with the purpose of determining the best pilot candidate for our device. This rubrik entailed multiple factors which we deemed significant for AISHA’s performance and are listed below:

Outlet
Power
Connectivity
Noise Level
Safety of Device
Intern Reach / Frequency of Inquiry
Early Adopters
Device Supervisor Approval

This criteria represented the requirements for a successful pilot and each prospective candidate was to be reviewed accordingly. While we did start the evaluation process, we could not finish it owing to a lack of information such as being unsure about the presence of interns in Nurse Victoria’s department or insights about Masuba which is why we postponed the process to tomorrow.

Rating: 4.79/5