Jane Del Ser EMBA ’10Journal #1
Jacaranda Health is named after the beautiful flowering jacaranda tree, which grows everywhere in Africa. Nick Pearson, the organizations’ founder, thought it appropriate to represent a social venture that aims to bring low-cost, high quality maternal health to all of East Africa through a network of ground and mobile clinics combined with innovative health information systems technology such as electronic medical records and mobile applications.
This summer, another MBA from Harvard Business School and I are on the ground in Nairobi to launch the mobile health clinic unit as a summer pilot, which will serve the informal settlements and low-income housing estates of eastern Nairobi. Eastern Nairobi is a rapid-growth area driven by urban migration and unbounded real estate for development.
As an early stage venture, Jacaranda Health aims to use ICT in the maternal healthcare sector through a combination of clinical, systems and business innovation. Marketing research, strategy, clinical protocols, data systems and mobile technology assessment are priorities at the moment. Nevertheless, healthcare and technology innovation is an especially exciting sector to work in and Nairobi is an excellent place to be for social entrepreneurs. It’s brimming with folks local and from elsewhere who want to make an impact and also deliver sustainable business models. Acumen, Juhudi Kilimo, and Ushahidi are just a few that I have had encounters with in the first week. I have connected to the iHub as well, which is a center for young local development talent as a potential source of technology partners.
On the technology front, I have met with MoTeCH Ghana of the Grameen Foundation, RapidSMS, Frontline SMS, and similar NGOs implementing Health Information Systems here in East Africa. On the clinical side, I have visited two clinics in Kibera and Kayole Soweto to gather best practices and observe how these clinics have grown. I will also be attending two health camps this month, which will help me understand how structure the mobile unit logistically and design a “quick and dirty” health information system we can build on as we grow. I’ve actively sought out opportunities to be in the field alongside local clinical health workers to get access to them and their patients. I know I have a lot of assumptions and untested ideas that need to be vetted out by the customer herself. My most immediate challenge: learning the clinical basics and trying to navigate in a new culture and context. And I wish I had prepared beforehand with some basic Swahili.
It’s very stimulating time to be here in Kenya as the August 4 referendum is just around the corner. It is in this context I am learning about the proposed constitution and the politics that drive it. I will volunteer with Ushahidi in the situation room on the national Election Day to help monitor how citizens interact with basic mobile technology. I also feel very fortunate to have attended a showing of the film Taking Root and a panel discussion by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai and other highly regarded activists and intellectuals who urged Kenyans to be informed and to be advocates of their political inputs and rights.
Journal #2
I have three weeks left to my internship and so much has happened. My first entry was about the overall impressions and orientation to the Kenyan culture and landscape and now I will focus on my role in the progress on health informatics and the mobile application front.
My main focus has been to assess and implement OpenMRS, an open-source electronic medical record (EMR) platform. I believe that it’s the appropriate software for a model like Jacaranda Health. I recommend it as the EMR technology since the platform can be replicated and scaled as the network of Jacaranda Health as maternal clinics increase in Kenya and East Africa. At the moment, I’ve built a network of local talent including systems administrators, data management specialists, network administrators and web and mobile developers. Kenya and Nairobi is the hub for ICT talent. I am really impressed by the young but highly competent group of developers I have met in the last few weeks. To date, I have worked with these local developers to acquire hardware and install a simple version of the software that can be used for the mobile unit pilot program in the fall.
I have also put together a mobile development team to create a working prototype for an sms-based patient savings calculator and mobile payment platform that would be integrated with the OpenMRS database to provide personalized patient sms-alerts. We have submitted this prototype to Apps4Africa, a contest to highlight the talent of local developers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania and to leverage the power of digital technology to make a better world. The challenge is to build useful web and mobile tools to address community challenges in areas ranging from healthcare to education and government transparency to election monitoring. This contest is open to citizens, coders and mentors to partner together and is sponsored by the iHub, Appfrica Labs, SODNET, and the US Department of State. If we win (winners to be notified at the end of September/early October), the Jacaranda Health team can access cash prizes, the latest Android phones, press coverage and access to tech luminaries and civil society leaders at an awards ceremony in September.
And since there is so much going on in Nairobi in the social enterprise and health ICT space, I have also had the chance to attend the Tandaa Symposium, which is a Kenya ICT board and Google-sponsored day conference on technology for social change where I learned more about AMREF’s Flying Doctors program. This NGO uses airplanes to provide medical care and emergency transport in rural areas of Kenya and also leverages sms-based monitoring programs such as Frontline SMS. Professionals and students from all across Kenya attended this event. During the month, I also had a chance to present Jacaranda Health to the Mobile Monday Kenya audience. As a result, I got great feedback from technologists about the sustainability and practicality of the EMR and mobile applications for Jacaranda Health. Through my friend and founder of TEDxKibera, I also had the privilege of hearing some compelling speakers about enacting change in the Kenyan youth to engender a changing to in thinking to solve problems for their lives and future. I wrote another post about this event for Jacaranda Health’s blog.
Finally, I had the chance to visit Masai Mara, a large game reserve in South Western Kenya, which is the continuation of the Serengeti National Park. During a four-day safari, I had the chance to see four of the big five (lions, elephants, zebra, and rhino) and learn more about Masai culture while staying at a tented bush camp. Kenya and her many natural landscapes never cease to stun me with its splendor and majestic beauty. I hope I have more time to travel to visit the Kenya Swahili coast, which will provide a drastic contrast to the Africa Rift Valley.
