Concept related

 

What does Mashavu mean?

Mashavu means “chubby cheeked” in Swahili. It is an indicator of good health…and that’s how we want all the people in the world to be.

 

Is Mashavu meant only for children or for everyone?

It is for everyone but our first priority is children.

 

Doesn’t Mashavu make US doctors liable for the advice?

US doctors are providing medical advice like you would get on WebMD or other similar websites. The final medical recommendations and prescriptions are given by the Tanzanian doctors. With Telemedicine becoming more popular, this is becoming a major issue and the World Health Organization has a committee specifically looking at liability and legal issues related to international telemedicine initiatives.

 

Is privacy a concern?

Not really. The information of a particular patient is available only to the doctor(s) and the Mashavu station operator. Also, the concept of privacy in East Africa is very different than the concept of privacy in the US.

 

What is the incentive for US doctors to participate on the site?

For now, there is only a humanitarian incentive. Models like Wikipedia have proved that “crowdsourcing” works if you can engage the audience. We are planning to make the process as easy and as much fun as possible to encourage doctors and nurses to participate. We have also discussed the idea of having upper division medical students engage on Mashavu as part of their education.

 

What is the incentive for Kenyan doctors to participate on the site?

Kenyan doctors will get more traffic from patients who have been avoiding visiting the doctor. We can have systems in place to charge the patients a little extra and share the revenue with the participating clinic.

 

Do the US doctors need to be sensitized to the context?

Absolutely! The sensitization can be done on the website itself.

 

Does the system just collect numbers?

It also takes photographs (extremely important) and gets user’s qualitative responses to questions about their health. We are also trying to develop simple attachments to get good photos of eyes, ear canal and throat.

 

Is there a language barrier?

The national languages of Kenya and Tanzania are Swahili but many people speak English. The software will take care of the language translation.

 

Do small organizations have access to computers?

We have traveled extensively in East Africa and other developing countries and we can attest that computers are getting extremely popular everywhere. Many non-profits and faith-based organizations are generally happy to donate computers for ventures like these. The Mashavu system will work with any computer that has a USB port.

 

Does the Mashavu system absolutely need a computer? Will the system work with a cellphone only?

Most smartphones (PDA-cellphones) have a USB port but they are cannot configured for “hosting” USB devices. We expect that to change soon. The system will work with PDAs with a CompactFlash DAQ card – but that will be significantly more expensive.

 

How will you power these stations in rural areas with no electricity?

That’s our biggest challenge! We are trying to design the system to work with solar panels but that is also an expensive proposition. We intend to leverage our relationship with UNIDO to address this problem. UNIDO is working on a major rural electrification project called “Lighting Up Kenya”. They are setting up energy kiosks using various sustainable energy sources and encouraging micro-enterprises around them. UNIDO has agreed to set up energy kiosks for our pilot sites in Kenya. UNIDO is also exploring the possibility of convincing cellphone companies to setup the energy kiosks to power their towers as well as Mashavu stations. The fierce competition and phenomenal profits among cellphone companies might help us getting one of them onboard. 

 

Do the Mashavu station operators have to undergo any training?

Yes, and we are hoping that our university partners will help us with the training. In any case, that’s an easily solvable problem.

 

How do you get children to get themselves Mashavu’d?

By making it a fun exercise. We will have a team working on the industrial design of the system. How about an elephant-like kiosk and you can take the trunk and use it as a stethoscope…and the tip of the tail folds up to take photographs?

 

Have you considered Mashavu for the US?

Yes, we have been encouraged to do so by many entities. Mashavu would be especially useful in rural America and remote communities. Another possibility is having a high-end system for airplanes. This might raise the potential for a hybrid business model to support technology development in the US. We will explore this further once we have good traction and entities who will help us navigate through the complex issues around liability and privacy in the US.

 

Technology Related:

What’s the biggest challenge on the technology front?

Calibration of the devices. But we have good ideas on how to solve them.

 

Will the Mashavu system work with any computer?

Any computer that has a USB port and supports the LabVIEW run time engine. All our code development is with LabVIEW.

 

Will the system be manufacturable in East Africa?

The Data Acquisition (DAQ) card and basic sensors will have to be imported but the rest of the hardware will be assembled locally and provide some jobs.

Business and Economic Sustainability Related:

What is your intellectual property strategy?

Our IP strategy is Please Infringe! We intend to publish the designs and make them available to the world to build upon…and join the Mashavu dream.

 

How will the system work and sustain itself if it is not networked and does not include basic consultations?

We have seen many nano-entrepreneurs standing on the side of the road with a weighing scaled and telling people their weight. If people want to know their weight, why can’t we educate them to know their blood pressure, lung capacity, temperature, etc.? What you can quantify – you can improve! Check out these business models:

Weighing Machine in Mumbai, India. For 5 cents it will tell you your weight (and fortune). This has been around for decades!!!	Weighing machine and height detector in Beijing, China. The system runs from a battery. There is a simple weighing scale and a motorized system that comes down till it touches your head…and you have the height.
Similar system in Amman, Jordan	Various places in Turkey. The one on the right wants almost a dollar to give you your weight!