HMN 2025: How Mobile app aims to bridge Ghana’s rural well being care gap

For years, frontline nurses at community-based well being planning companies have been compelled to improvise with restricted sources, no labs, no ultrasound machines, and typically no electrical energy.

When issues arose, sufferers wanted to journey to better-equipped hospitals, usually a number of kilometers away.

“We see instances where pregnant ladies are transported on bicycles or motorbikes to achieve care,” says Emmanuel Ahene, a medical marketing consultant CHPS-community-based well being planning service. “It’s not unusual.”

The statistics paint a stark image—throughout 4 northern districts solely 6% of amenities might present fundamental emergency {pregnancy} care, with simply 3% providing complete companies.

Among ladies who died or almost died throughout childbirth, 39% delivered at amenities unequipped for emergencies.

Now, researchers at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in southern Ghana have developed a cell utility that might remodel this actuality.

Bridging the digital divide

The app, known as the National Health Access Platform, is designed to assist rural communities hook up with life-saving companies shortly and reliably, enhancing referrals and decreasing delays in care.

“We needed to bridge the accessibility gap,” explains Rose-Mary Owusuaa Mensah Gyening, from KNUST, the mission’s lead researcher.

“We centered on options that help fundamental care, allow real-time referrals, and supply culturally acceptable well being data.”

The app permits group well being staff and sufferers to guide hospital appointments, seek the advice of higher-level amenities, entry well being data in native languages, and obtain distant consultations.

Health care amenities can replace service availability and handle referral queues in actual time.

Users can find the closest clinic or hospital by means of a map-based interface, view accessible companies, and provoke digital referrals. Crucially, data is saved domestically on units and mechanically syncs when web connectivity returns.

“It works even where community protection is poor,” Gyening provides.

At the ability degree, directors can replace which companies are operational every day, enabling well being staff in distant areas to make extra knowledgeable referrals.

Daniel Ansong, a pediatrician and public well being specialist on the crew, illustrates the issue with a typical situation.

“A … compound close to Kpando [a town in eastern Ghana] sees a pregnant girl who wants an ultrasound. She’s despatched to Kpando, arrives by 9:30 a.m., and is instructed the ultrasound is not working. She goes to Hohoe [a town an hour’s drive from Kpando] and is instructed companies are closed till morning.”

With the app, he says, “the nurse can inform her that Kpando’s ultrasound operates on Wednesdays, Hohoe’s on Thursdays, and refer her appropriately.”

Community-centered growth

The mission operates beneath Ghana’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, with KNUST main growth.

Before constructing the app, the crew carried out in depth consultations with well being workers, hospital managers, and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) officers. Field testing was carried out throughout all 16 areas of Ghana.

“We did not simply construct an app and deploy it,” Gyening says.

“We spoke to folks working within the system—district administrators, midwives, and even ambulance workers.”

This method resulted in a device designed to handle actual, day-to-day challenges in underserved communities.

Scaling challenges and options

While the app is totally useful, nationwide scaling presents important hurdles.

“Not all underserved communities have web entry,” Gyening says.

“We handle this by making some functionalities accessible offline. But to take full benefit of the app’s advantages, web entry is ultimately wanted.”

The crew believes sustainability depends upon institutional help.

“KNUST can present updates and technical help by means of our groups, however public-private partnerships and coverage backing are important for scale,” Gyening says.

Ansong provides, “If NHIS integrates with the app, sufferers will not face double expenses. And if the Ghana Health Service mandates participation, we are able to obtain nationwide protection.”

Joshua Ofoeda, a senior lecturer and head of IT on the University of Professional Studies, Accra, helps the initiative as “a forward-thinking method to addressing well being wants in underserved communities, particularly rural Ghana.”

He suggests the crew take into account including text-to-speech features to help customers with disabilities.

The researchers consider the app may gain advantage neighboring nations going through comparable well being care challenges.

“West Africa’s well being care techniques face the identical constraints, distance, workers shortages, and weak infrastructure,” Ansong observes. “If it really works right here, it could actually work in Burkina Faso or Nigeria too.”

Research helps this potential. Studies present that throughout the area, ladies usually tend to ship at dwelling, with 44% citing transport challenges or lengthy distances to well being amenities.

In Nigeria, a 2023 study discovered rural ladies are greater than twice as seemingly as city ladies to ship at dwelling after suboptimal antenatal care visits.

Looking ahead

“We are hoping for the day when these purposes and applied sciences are totally accepted by folks,” Gyening says.

“The key phrase has all the time been to help caregivers, not exchange them.”

The crew is now making ready stakeholder workshops and interesting with nationwide companies to combine the app into Ghana’s broader well being infrastructure—a important step towards reworking well being care supply in one of many world’s most underserved areas.

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