Describe at least 5 partnerships with individuals and/or organizations that have been formed to support your project and that impact the success or failure of your venture. For each partnership, explain: 1) What constituted the partnership? 2) How did the partner help you? How did you help them? 3) Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not? 4) What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?

 

Makeni Regional Hospital (Martin)

1. What constituted the partnership?
   1. Needing a champion to help implement our device and to have a pilot initiative
2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
   1. Partner understood the nature of our project, comprehending that the product was meant strictly for educational purposes. Also, our partner has taken on the responsibility for the time being to pay for the internet, understanding that our team is comprised of students with limited funds at the time being.
   2. Providing an educational resource for his subordinates – nurses and interns – relieving him of some of the burden from his high-pressure job.
3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
   1. Yes, the partner provides us with relevant feedback for us to further develop our device, and we are helping them with our devices!
4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
   1. Better communication
   2. A person on ground.
   3. More time(?)

Branda Hospital: 

1. What constituted the partnership?
   1. Needing a champion to help implement our device and to have a pilot initiative
2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
   1. Partner understood the nature of our project, comprehending that the product was meant strictly for educational purposes.
   2. Providing internet!!!
   3. Providing an educational resource for her interns
   4. AISHA quizzes as a pastime– Nurses and interns enjoyed the game we created, and while learning, they have also given us feedback for improvement.
3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not
   1. Yes, the partner provides us with relevant feedback for us to further develop our device, and we are helping them with our devices
4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
   1. Better communication
   2. A person on the ground to help with technology issues
   3. More time spent with them to give more training on how to use the device

Loreto Clinic

1. What constituted the partnership?
   1. Needing a champion to help implement our device and to have a pilot initiative
2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
   1. Partner understood the nature of our project, comprehending that the product was meant strictly for educational purposes. Also, our partner has taken on the responsibility for the time being to pay for the internet, understanding that our team is composed of students with limited funds at the time being.
   2. Providing an educational resource for his subordinates – nurses and interns – relieving him of some of the burden from his high-pressure job.
3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
   1. Yes, the partner provides us with relevant feedback for us to further develop our device, and we are helping them with our devices!
4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
   1. Better communication
   2. A person on ground.
   3. More time(?)

WHI

1. What constituted the partnership?
   1. Long established relationship between Creative Inquiry and WHI
2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
   1. They provided headquarters for our operations
   2. Connected us with people like Edwin, who allowed us to improve upon our venture with his expertise
   3. Provided vehicles for our day to day operations
3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
   1. No, WHI did not directly benefit from our project, nor did we form a relationship on the basis of AISHA, but on the  basis of Creative Inquiry and Lehigh University
4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
   1. Possibly collaborating with more people like Edwin, and being able to use some of our skills to help them on their missions
   2. Have a mutually beneficial relationship between us and them (help them with their cervical cancer initiative and them helping us to further our projects and expanding it, possibly it into freetown)

University of Makeni (UNIMAK)

1. What constituted the partnership?
   1. The University of Makeni (UNIMAK) collaborated with the AISHA project to implement the AISHA Quizzes as a study recall tool for students. This partnership was essential for testing the tool in a real-world educational setting.
2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
   1. UNIMAK’s support: They provided access to students and faculty to test the AISHA Quizzes, helping refine the tool based on feedback. UNIMAK also allowed the project to use its facilities for data collection and provided insights into the specific educational needs of the region.
3. AISHA’s support: The AISHA project introduced an innovative educational resource (quizzes) aimed at improving student recall and performance, particularly in medical education. This was beneficial for UNIMAK’s academic programs.
4. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
   1. Yes, this was symbiotic. UNIMAK benefited from the educational tool, which enhanced student learning, while AISHA gained real-world data and feedback to refine the quizzes.
5. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
   1. Strengthening the feedback loop between students, faculty, and the AISHA team could further enhance the tool’s effectiveness. Additionally, providing more customized content for different departments at UNIMAK could increase engagement and mutual benefit.

 

Provide at least 2 compelling and specific examples of how you might engage with each of the 11 types of organizations that we discussed in class.

#1 Multilaterals:

• UNICEF: Have previously provided funding to certain hospitals and also the DHMT for internet- can be a useful collaboration for AISHA
• WHO: Goal is to build stronger healthcare systems: AISHA can assist with that, and a collaboration with WHO may make AISHA a necessity in a hospital setting

#2 Government Agencies

• Ministry of health and sanitation : Providing government resources and standard of procedures
• Providing the appropriate permissions to visit hospitals and interact with people

#3 Non-profits

• WHI: They provided the logistical resources we required to carry out our operations.
• WHI (pt2)- They fund specific projects: they were hosting one during our time during fieldwork that made significant progress in cervical cancer diagnosis. Partnering with them may look like bringing and installing AISHA in different hospitals as well as providing maintained technical help.

#4 Foundations

• Bill Gates foundation: Has a Global Health Program that has improved healthcare in developing countries by creating tools to fight HIV/AIDS, improving family health, and preventing infectious diseases: all of which are big problems in Sierra Leone.
• The Global Fund: An international financing organization that provides support to countries in the response to AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

#5 Academia

• University of Makeni – Possible collaboration to utilize our device in their nursing programme (AISHA Quizzes)

• Ateneo University- possibility for a collaboration with them. We aren’t sure exactly what this partnership would look like, but they expressed interest in having a capstone team work on our project. There is a chance that this capstone team could work on the development of a new device!

#6 Social Ventures

• Other potential social ventures working with healthcare education in LMICs
• Medic Mobile – facilitates community health workers,  hospitals, and families in providing much-needed quality care to those in need

#7 Think Tanks

• We could work with a think tank that analyzes healthcare in a low resource setting to gain more information on healthcare practices and standards to improve our databases
• We can partner with think tanks and use them as a source of advertisement: so they can communicate our project and connect us with others working on similar ventures.

#8 K-12 System

• Governmental Schooling System promoting jobs in healthcare through presentations and illustrations
• Testing our device with students → user friendliness, how well does it work

#9 Corporations

• We could potentially partner with bigger cooperation on some of their charitable projects, or get a grant through a medium like this.
• Amazon : collaborating to get devices and utilizing their technology and using it to further their philanthropic and charitable goals

#10 Consulting Firms

• BCG – works across the healthcare industry, including: payers, providers, systems, medical devices, pharmaceuticals. A partnership with them would likely help us create our ideal device.
• McKinsey & Company

#11 Startups -Start

• AI and Healthcare Tech Startups: Collaborate with startups that specialize in AI-driven healthcare solutions to improve AISHA’s core functionalities. For example, working with startups in natural language processing (NLP) or machine learning can help enhance AISHA’s ability to interact with users, understand local languages, and deliver context-specific healthcare information.
• E-learning Startups: Collaborate with startups creating educational content for healthcare professionals. They can help develop or distribute AISHA’s lessons, quizzes, and simulations to broader audiences in healthcare training programs.
• K Health – gives its members access to an AI-powered symptom checker and 24/7 messaging through its mobile app