Design for Health

Leveraging design for health solutions

"Despite the plethora of interventions and investments that have been made in the healthcare systems across the African continent, health systems are still characterized by a myriad of issues that cut across institutional, human resources, financial, technical and political developments which make them too weak to deliver effective healthcare services for better outcomes. Design for Health seeks to unlock the black box and co-develop targetted interventions which would move the needle."

Dr. Temi Filani Practice Lead - Design for Health

Why we believe this is important

Our Thinking

"Sub-Saharan Africa has seen some progress in reducing the burden of diseases, however, early death and disability still remain high in many countries compared to other parts of the world.

We are seeking the possibility of spurring innovation in public health and empowering key players in the space to intentionally innovate in order to address some of the challenges seen across the continent.

Through a design thinking approach, we work with key stakeholders within the ecosystem to co-create solutions that leverage technology to address pressing challenges with the objective of improving health outcomes.

Some of our areas of interest include: Epidemiology, health information systems and emerging public health priorities

What we have done

Our Expressions

Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Project

The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain project is a human centred design based project to address some inadequacies and significant gaps in the drug supply and distribution system in Africa. The highly fragmented nature of the drug supply system characterized by poor data sharing is one of the key factors for the weak drug supply system. This project focused on triangulating data between drug providers/aggregator platforms, public sector management systems and the patient/consumers in three African countries; Nigeria, Kenya & South Africa and enhanced the ability of drug providers to deliver better services at the frontline to healthcare users. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, our team is developed tech based solutions using the human centered design (HCD) approach to elicit information on the existing drug value chain and co-create contextually relevant solutions which can be tested to improve data sharing and visibility between key stakeholders along the drug value chain for more accurate health reporting.

Smiles for Mothers

Nigeria is the leading contributor to maternal deaths across the globe and postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a major driver of these mortalities. Smiles for Mothers (SfM) is a program aimed at reducing maternal mortality and morbidity due to postpartum hemorrhage. The project is being supported by Clinton Health Access Initiative, SOLINA Group, Co-creation Hub Nigeria, and McKinsey. Working with the Smiles for Mothers consortium, we are seeking to apply human-centered design principles to develop innovations to reduce maternal deaths due to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) in Kano, Lagos, and Niger states.
This project is being sponsored by MSD for Mothers

The Governance Innovation Lifecycle Challenge and Accelerator

Designed and supported by MIT GOV/LAB, Gatefield, and CcHub, the governance innovation lifecycle challenge and accelerator addressed problems that made it difficult to incentivize and support sustainable governance innovations. At the core, the project focused on governance innovations targeted at improving service delivery in the Healthcare sector as well as promoting new patterns of responsibility in the healthcare system. The project leveraged a specially designed human-centered design framework to implement an approach to address critical areas of need in healthcare service delivery, enhance government responsiveness, and encourage changes in individual and collective behavior that can ensure better health outcomes for the populace. Through an initial call for applications, the project worked with a team from the Ekiti State Ministry of Health to develop the ‘Agbodegba Ulera’, a tech based tool designed to measure preparedness, ameliorate and assess the quality of healthcare service delivery.

Africa Digital Epidiemology Innovation Network (ADEIN)

The Africa Digital Epidemiology Innovation Network is a platform established to promote the development of Africa’s capacity/capabilities in the field of digital epidemiology by leveraging the experience and expertise of its members. It is a community of health practitioners, scientists, researchers, data analysts, and developers engaged in exploring the effective use of data and technology in the monitoring and surveillance of diseases in the continent.

NIMCURE

NIMCURE is a collaborative research and development project between CcHUB and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). The project seeks to develop a digital tool to support and enhance adherence to treatment by Tuberculosis patients in Nigeria.
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide and is considered as one of the most important infectious diseases across most of the developing nations (WHO, 2018). TB is a major public health threat in Nigeria and a leading cause of death in HIV infection. Through this project, we aim to identify the extent to which technology can play a role in ensuring adherence, thereby reducing the cases of drug-resistant TB and improving the health of individuals across the country.

Epidemiology Designathon

The Design for Epidemiology Designathon was a collaborative project between Co-Creation Hub and Facebook. The project aimed to identify and support tech-enabling health startups (IDEA and MVP) in Nigeria to the development of innovative technology solutions towards curbing disease spread and preventing future occurrences while leveraging Facebook Data for Good. The three (3) day hybrid event was held in mid-October. A total of 12 teams were selected from the hundreds of applications received to participate if was aimed at exploring and leveraging a comprehensive data list from Facebook’s Data for Good Program towards understanding, monitoring, and controlling the spread of diseases in Nigeria. The teams were exposed to various workshops where they learned about Human-Centred Design, Leveraging Facebook’s Data for Good datasets, and Rapid Prototyping. The third day had the teams conclude on their solution and pitch their various solutions to the panel of judges which comprise of representatives from Facebook, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), eHealth Africa, and CcHUB Startup Support Unit. Two teams emerged winners in both the IDEA category and the MVP category of the Healthcare Startups. Hence, they will be supported with $10,000 and $15,000 respectively from each category. The winning teams for the Idea category include D-Tracker Ltd and Myclinic Ng Ltd, while the winning teams for the MVP category include Healthstack Solutions and the 9th digit Contracting Ltd. They are currently on a three (3) month pilot program to refine their prototypes through iterative testing as well as finetune their business model.

We wish them the very best in the future!

COVID Practice Management System

In collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and Lifebank, a digital system was created to support the process of testing suspected COVID-19 cases from reporting a case, through to triaging, and then communicating test results.
NIMR and Lifebank are conducting free tests for suspected cases, therefore, this system helps to streamline all reports or requests to ensure that the high-risk cases are prioritized for testing.
The benefits of this system are the simplification of the reporting process, the automation of prioritizing high-risk cases and communicating the test results to the patients.

iTest

ITest is a collaborative research and development project between CcHUB, NIMR, and the 4yBy team. The goal of the project is to create a system that supports HIV self-testing in Nigeria by collecting test-related data via the use of a mobile app and linking potential patients to care. It would also educate users of the self-testing kit on safe sex practices and encourage routine testing of HIV.

Linked

Linked is a web platform that measures the frequency and density of friendship and social ties around the world, a type of data that has rarely been made available to those interested in understanding how relationships affect social outcomes. Our platform leverages Twitter interactions to determine connectedness and social ties between users. These connections provide insights that can be pivotal in times of crisis – particularly when contact needs to be established.

Linked is currently accessible for free to Mental Health Organisations and Foundations, who can use it to reach out to Twitter users that post suicidal or mental health distress messages. The platform is also able to identify connections that can be contacted in times of emergencies with 87% accuracy