Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare/RX/Pharma communications in your country/region including:

Under Article 25, Section 1 of the Medical Devices Act, all medical devices are required to comply with selected legislation. All commercials about medical devices must be reviewed and evaluated based on the standards and proceedings established by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Describe the target audience and why your work is relevant to them.

To decrease the maternal mortality rate, Healcerion created SONON, a mobile ultrasound device. But, health workers in the global south, can’t use SONON due to its costs. Encouraging them to use SONON, Healcerion developed 'Prepaid system,' providing SONON free-of-charge, and letting the consumers pay for vouchers based on their usage.

Background

99% of maternal deaths occur in the global south due to lack of antenatal care since pregnant women living in remote areas have limited access to healthcare facilities. To help reduce the maternal mortality rate, Healcerion created 'SONON', a mobile ultrasound device that can be controlled remotely via smartphone. However, the usage of SONON in the global south does not reach 10% of the usage of developed countries due to the financial burden of health workers. In order to increase SONON usage in the global south, Healcerion introduced the 'Prepaid system' that allows health workers to pay for SONON based on their usage.

Describe the creative idea

SONON, a portable ultrasound device, can share the essential, universal values of humanity by demonstrating new life within a mother’s womb. These must be valued regardless of the mother’s socioeconomic status. This innovative device made it possible for every individual across the world to have access to receiving personal medical care through ultrasound. However, the usage of SONON in the global south makes up less than 10% of the developed countries’ usage because of its initial purchase cost. In order to increase SONON usage in the global south, we introduced the 'Prepaid system': we provide the device for free and the health workers only need to pay for each one-time fee by purchasing a voucher from local grocery stores. Through the help of this system, health workers can conveniently provide point-of-care to pregnant women in remote areas.

Describe the strategy

The usage rate of SONON, the groundbreaking device used all around the world, is still severely low in the global south. The health workers stated that SONON’s expensive cost serves as the high purchase barrier, even though it is ten times cheaper than the ultrasound machine used in hospitals. To lower the purchase barrier, we interviewed local health workers and found some insight we can implement. By observing that people purchase phone cards based on the time usage they need, we came up with the system that provides health workers with Healcerion device for free and lets them purchase the ultrasound voucher each time they need it. Also, we distributed the vouchers at local grocery stores according to the purchase pattern of the locals, who buy small portions of daily supplies from nearby grocery shops.

Describe the execution

In the Volta region of Ghana, local doctors performed ultrasound tests in district health centers for three days. Healcerion donated the SONON device to Keta South Municipal Hospital, a partner of KOICA. Dr. Jung won Ryu, CEO of Healcerion, provided training to the local health workers regarding the SONON device operation for antenatal diagnosis. Under the guidance of Dr. Hoon-sang Lee, a KOICA healthcare specialist in Ghana, the campaign team visited three healthcare centers and witnessed Dr. Kwaku Appiagye and his medical team diagnose over 50 pregnant women. As of now, SONON has come into wide use in 40 countries including 20 countries from the global south and it is supplied in 20 commune Health Centers in Vietnam with KOICA. Through UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Service), 14 SONON devices were supplied in Ghana.

List the results

This innovative technology drew the Korean government’s attention and was officially designated as the ‘Creative Technology Solution’ by KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency). Furthermore, SONON is gradually being acquired by health facilities in the global south with the aim of using the device to help reduce the maternal mortality rate. BY 2020, 2,500 SONON devices will be made available in more than 59 countries from the global south. This is approximately 7.5 times more than today’s supplies. Healcerion consistently contacted various NGO’s in the whole world, just like what Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did. If the health facility delivery were to be more encouraged as Healcerion’s 'Prepaid system' allows wider distribution of SONON, the maternal mortality rate in the global south would be expected to decrease by more than 10%.