Team Ruby, comprising four university students, has emerged as the winner of the fourth season of the Game of Learners (GOL) competition with its innovation, Jambo Care. The solution translates local dialects into English or Kiswahili, making it easier for doctors to diagnose patients’ symptoms remotely. The GOL competition aims to develop technological solutions for Africa’s health challenges and featured more than 80 students from 11 African countries.
This season, the Microsoft African Development Centre (ADC) partnered with Population Services International (PSI) and AMREF Health Africa in a five-week hackathon to design and build technology solutions that make primary healthcare more accessible to people. The competition challenged participants to delve into the healthcare sector, identify unique challenges, and design tech-based solutions. The three partners provided tailored training on health system challenges, digital health development principles, and how to use insights to advance user-centred designs.
Speaking about their innovation, Lucy Alphonce, the Team Ruby captain, said: “Our translator aims to bridge the communication gap whereby the healthcare provider and the recipient don’t have a common language of communication. This will ensure effective healthcare delivery.”
Speaking at the Season Finale, Ruth Ferland, the Regional Head of Student & Community Engagements at Microsoft ADC, praised the participants’ creativity and encouraged them to submit their projects to the Microsoft Imagine Cup, a global student technology competition.
As part of the next steps, PSI will provide some students with internship opportunities to progress their knowledge in digital health. AMREF Health will offer 3-months of technical support to the best two teams to advance their innovations. Wycliffe Waweru, PSI’s Deputy Director of Digital Health & Monitoring, said that PSI is looking at innovation hubs that can host some of the solutions that the young people have developed and that they will offer internships to individuals interested in pursuing a career in digital health.
Kitawa Wemo, the Innovations Lead at AMREF Health, said that the collaboration with Microsoft ADC and PSI is part of efforts to integrate global health and digital skills, and that by leveraging digital technologies, we can improve data management, promote telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, provide health education, and promote global collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
The GOL competition offers African university students a platform to showcase their problem-solving skills and creativity in using technology to solve some of the continent’s most pressing health challenges.
