OpenGaza, Winner of AI + Global Health Hackathon
A Whatsapp-integrated lightweight inventory management system for medications and biomedical devices.
Collaborative project with Abdulsalam Raja, Heba Abdelrazzak, and Ishan Juneja.
Role
UX and Visual Designer
Timeline
December 2024
Methods
User Research, Design Audit, Concept Sketching, Visual Design, Figma Prototyping, Concept Testing
- Successfully built a telemedicine solution from scratch following the needs outlined by the partnering organization, gxza health.
- Offered an opportunity to continue the project with the product team at gxza health; shipping it to on-ground doctors and pharmacy teams.
Context
The team at gxzahealth is trying to provide telehealth to patients who have lost access to medical care in light of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The current process involves a patchwork of tools such as Google Sheets, Notion, and WhatsApp to:
- An up-to-date list of medications and their availability.
- Manage prescriptions from doctors.
- Supplies from participating pharmacies.
Problem
The reality in Gaza presents unique challenges to healthcare delivery. Discussions with on-ground physicians and traumatologists revealed that in Gaza today, the average internet speed is approximately O.0056 MB per second.
In addition to inefficiencies in inventory management, tools like Notion and Google Sheets were not designed for low-bandwidth environments. We also learned that communication on these platforms was three-way, with the pharmacy team acting as the middle-man.
Intervention
We automate the flow of inventory management from doctors to pharmacists and vice-versa using AI. OpenGaza leverages WhatsApp's lightweight infrastructure to create a secure, efficient inventory management system that works even with limited connectivity.
Why does this work?
Maximum accessibility
The web app ensures that the interface works on Android devices while also requiring no download.
Minimal technical requirements
The interface is designed to use limited internet bandwidth, no special hardware is needed.
Reduced barrier to access
Direct access to essential information with a familiar interface like Whatsapp and easy form-based updates.
Designing the pharmacist-facing web application
While the chatbot addressed the doctors’ needs to input requests for medication and receive supply information, the pharmacies still needed a way to update inventory and view doctors’ requests.
In .my design I prioritized:
- A form-based interface to quickly add and delete medication information.
- Infinite scrolling and “filter” and “sort by” options to quickly find medication and limit the number of webpages loaded and displayed.
- A modular design for viewing doctors’ requests and their status of completion.
Economic Incentive
Cutting out the middleman
We reduce labor costs spent on the pharmacy team and prevent costly delays in medication delivery.
Reducing operational costs
Each manual process has a price tag. By automating through WhatsApp, we slash operational costs that can be redirected to medical supplies.
Better patient outcomes
Medications reach patients before expiration as shortages are quickly identified. So, more time for patient care, and less time for paperwork.
Next steps: Scaling for global health
We hope to take OpenGaza one step beyond by transforming the system into a community-needs aggregator. The WhatsApp messages can be turned into powerful data in 3 simple steps:
- Community members submit their needs via WhatsApp texts.
- The OpenGaza system identifies patterns of urgent requests.
- Supporters worldwide can see exactly where their help matters most.
Read more about my experience here