What is the name of your solution?
Whispa Health App
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Whispa Health uses technology to provide everyone (most especially women) with convenient, affordable and confidential access to healthcare.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Ottawa, ON, CanadaIn what country is your solution team headquartered?
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
We aim to address problems and issues like shaming, stigma, and societal bias that prevent Young people in Nigeria and all over Africa from accessing quality healthcare, especially sexual and reproductive healthcare. These problems result in high rates of unintended pregnancies, abortions, and transmission of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
Furthermore, we are also addressing problems around cost of healthcare and leveraging technology and relevant partnerships to ensure affordable healthcare is available on the go.
What is your solution?
Whispa Health app is a solution that enables young people (especially women) to have shame-free, anonymous consultations with a doctor at home or on the go. It also offers quality reproductive health education via our blog and a discreet and affordable way to purchase sexual health products like HIV tests or book sexual health appointments like contraceptives, cervical cancer screening, or laboratory tests for sexually transmitted infections.We initially launched as a mobile app and are currently expanding to offer our services through web app. Hence the use of our new name- Whispa Health App.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our primary target audience is young females who are aged 18 to 35, who are smartphone users and active online be it through social media, blogs, websites, or WhatsApp. These females are mostly unmarried and have completed secondary schooling or higher. They may have just started their first job, some are married women and some have had their first or second child.
Our secondary target audience is the males aged 22 to 40 and they are usually in relationships (casual or committed) with our primary target audience. They are also smartphone users and active online be it through social media, blogs, websites, or WhatsApp.
In Nigeria, 3.4 million unintended pregnancies and over 2.7 million abortions occur annually. In addition, due to religion and culture, women in particular face stigma when trying to access certain healthcare needs related to their sexual and/or reproductive health.
Through our solution, we are able to reach over 30,000 people with convenient access to healthcare, reach young women with contraceptives when needed, help women to be screened for cervical cancer or obtain vaccinated against HPV to prevent cervical cancer and many people have screened for STIs for the first time by going for a routine Sexually Transmitted Infection test at a lab or purchasing a home test kit.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our founder and CEO-Morenike grew up in Nigeria and obtained her degree in pharmacy at a Federal Government University in Osun State. Like any young woman growing up in Nigeria, she personally experienced the cycle of shame and stigma related to any sex and reproductive health issues and how the current system sets young women up to become unwed mothers. In the early days of her career, she set up a blog to educate young people freely about various aspects of their healthcare with a clear goal to reach and later in her career, she was instrumental to the introduction of over 15 different contraceptive brands in Nigeria and in the drive to ensure access to safe abortion tools in Nigeria. She and her awesome and diverse team at Whispa Health consists of doctors, technical, marketing and admin personnel are all Nigerians who are united in their goal to ensure that healthcare can be accessed easily by young people in a convenient, afffordable, confidential and unbiased manner.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Increase access to and quality of health services for medically underserved groups around the world (such as refugees and other displaced people, women and children, older adults, and LGBTQ+ individuals).Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
PilotWhy are you applying to Solve?
One key aspect of our growth journey is to identify and secure strategic institutional partners. These are organizations and businesses with clientbase that are similar to our target audience and with missions that we can find synnergy with.
We believe MIT Solve can not only help us with securing such partnerships but also with our fundraising goals and with technological advancement of our solutions.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Morenike Fajemisin
What makes your solution innovative?
Our innovation Whispa Health App is providing a one-stop solution to address all parts of this problem of lack or inadequate access to healthcare including sexual and reproductive healthcare.
Young women in Nigeria and many other countries are at high risk of having unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections. They are brought up without any formal sex education classes and then have to navigate the minefield of unfriendly and biased adults at home, in the medical sector and in the larger public.
Using a mobile app, our innovation is able to discreetly and affordably provide discreet tele-consultations with doctors on the go as well as provide a convenient way to book various health appointments. Thus we are providing access to comprehensive healthcare while simultaneously addressing problems such as shaming, stigma, and societal bias that young people in Nigeria and all over Africa face when attempting to access sexual and reproductive healthcare.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
We have created a technology driven eco-system for improving access to healthcare for all especially women between the ages 18 to 35. We will measure the business's success by:
the number of users who have downloaded our app, the number of users who have consulted with a doctor, the number of users who purchase a product eg. HIV test kits or an appointment for any of our services eg. contraception or STI testing.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
We will measure the business's impact by the number of women reached with contraception (Couple Years of Protection(CYPs), the number of women who have been screened for cervical cancer. The number of women and girls who are vaccinated against HPV to prevent cervical cancer, The number of people screened and vaccinated for Hepatitis B, The number of people who have gone for a routine Sexually Transmitted Infection testing or purchased a home test kit, The number of people who have gone for a routine health check.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
We initially provided our services through Whispa mobile app that is available for free download in the android and apple stores.
We have begun the roll out to provide our services via the web. Thus we now prefer the name Whispa Health App.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technology
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
https://whispahealth.com
In which countries do you currently operate?
Which, if any, additional countries will you be operating in within the next year?
How long have you been working on your solution?
We are a
Our Founder Morenike has over 10 years of work experience in the Sexual and Reproductive health sector and has introduced over 20 new products to the Nigerian pharmaceutical supply chain and driven sales of over $6M.
Our Co-Founder Adeboye has over 10 years of experience helping businesses grow in the banking and oil and gas sectors.
Together with our team of 10 comprising doctors, app developers, admin and marketing personnel, we have all the relevant skills and experience to make this solution successful.
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
Our team is diverse and gender balanced. Our CEO is a woman who has a lot of experience personal and professional in the health sector, while a co-founder is a man who brings a wealth of experience from the business sector and as an entrepreneur.
The medical team of 4, comprises two female and two male doctors and we have a similar structure across the remaining teams in the business. We are careful when recruiting personnel to ensure we only have team members that are aligned with our vision to be shame-free and unbiased in how we deliver healthcare.
What is your business model?
We offer three main products:
1. teleconsultation with doctors
2. Appointment booking at various health facilities
3. Sales of reproductive health products.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
We are looking to partner with certain institutions that serve clients that are similar or the same as our target audience. This will allow us to scale our solution quickly and reach more of our TA in a shorter period of time with our impactful and innovative services.
Solution Team
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MF
Morenike Fajemisin Whispa Health
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Our Organization
Whispa Health