First things first; who or what is a Techpreneur? [Yeah, it is a real word!] The collinsdictionary.com defines a Techpreneur as an entrepreneur who starts and manages their own technology business. Crossroadspr.com defines a techpreneur as a warm-blooded animal, male or female, that feeds on no sleep, limited resources and a passion for technology: aka any person that creates a company around his or her vision for leveraging technology to change the world. Yes, you can thank me later.
Joshua Ihejiamaizu is a techpreneur, designer (web, graphics, UI/UX) and innovator who has initiated and run several ICT-based community projects at the Federal University of Technology Owerri where he is currently studying Electrical Electronic Engineering. He shares a strong passion for IT, writing and tech-related innovation.
Johnson Okorie, the other half of this duo, is a cross-platform programmer and developer with vast experience and skill set in the .NET framework (Visual Basic, C#, ASP.NET, and XNA), Database management systems (MySQL), C++ and Java for Blackberry and Android development. He also studies Electrical Electronics Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. In other words, these young men are, yes you guessed right…students!!!
Together, these young men, created the HealthMobile, a mobile phone application available on the Android and BB 10 OS platforms which pulls together an impressive database of vital health information into a beautiful and sleek design for easy access. In the near future, they say, the app aims to become a one-stop web facility for personalized and social healthcare delivery.
The inspiration for their work? The rampage of certain preventable diseases in our communities and the shocking doctor-patient statistics of several countries in Africa and beyond, were big factors. We also drew inspiration from the spread on smart phones and relentless penetration of internet connectivity making big data available and social medicine possible. The fast rate and increase of internet connectivity has made delivery of social healthcare truly possible. This clearly points to the future of development in most fields. Also the lure of open source development platforms available for mobile devices was decisive.
HealthMobile provides over 4,000 Health Topics/Information, Health News focusing on various categories, Food/Diet information for Lifestyle Planning, Hospital Locator service for finding the nearest hospitals around you, Drugs/Supplements information, First Aid Information and accompanying videos.
HealthMobile seeks to reach Doctors and patients with relevant information on categorized news, Drugs/supplements and Health Topics; Companies and organizations with a strong Health and Safety Mobile Policy; Tourists with the Hospital Locator Service; Government and UN parastatals with community healthcare solutions/projects targeted at women and children; and Diet Planners with its Lifestyle Planning Tools.
Joshua and Johnson hope to achieve three primary goals with the HealthMobile App; first, we want to save lives through relevant, reliable, and on-hand information. Secondly we want to reduce the burden on local healthcare providers and thirdly we want to improve industry practices in Health and Safety policies.
The road to success is annoyingly strewn with diverse [annoying] obstacles, and their journey was no different. Their initial challenge was developing a unique product because apps are practically littered everywhere. Generally though, lack of funding was a problem. Said Joshua, “People basically don’t like to fund ideas that have not taken off yet; so you have to do it all by yourself. Also, our immediate community in Nigeria is not one that is fully exploiting the vast potential of the web yet. What this means for us developers is that when you’re creating a medical app like we did, you’re going to meet with a lot of scepticism from the people you need most-the doctors. There was an unreceptive attitude from people in the medical line who are also too busy to listen to your pitch.”
He continues, “the key to overcoming these challenges was that we knew what we wanted; and we knew exactly where to start from, how to go about it, where to look and where not to and most importantly we had the raw skills/talent to make this happen. We knew all of that by learning from disappointing meetings and experiences.”
The HealthMobileApp is available on FIVE major App Stores MTN Next Apps, Google Playstore, Amazon Apps, Opera Mobile Store and AppBrain; as well as Samsung, LG and Blackberry OS 10 App Stores. Download links>>>
Google Play – https://play.google.
Opera Store – http://apps.opera.com/
Amazon App Store – http://www.amazon.com/
MTN Next Apps – http://nextapps.
AppBrain – http://www.
Two engineering students are set to revolutionise medical practise in Nigeria? I can’t wait! Off to download HealthMobile now!
We are all achievers; toss the excuses and get to work!
P.S: If you don’t know what an APP is…I really can’t help you!!!
Thanks for this article.
It is very inspirational. Keep up the good works.
You are welcome! We can’t wait to write your story!
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