About GHAPP In times of crisis, wireless internet might be the only medium that connects those affected by disaster and the rest of the world, thus facilitating prompt information exchange about the extent of the disaster as well as urgent needs. Whilst organisations and governments react instantaneously, and humanitarian aid for casualties is usually mobilised rapidly, the suitable allocation of resources faces many challenges. Additionally, health care services may either not meet the requirements or are not accessible for those in need. For this reason, people hit by disaster and affected by medical emergencies should be able to help themselves by accessing global healthcare. The Global Health Access Project (GHAP) focused on providing information for people in need of medical care no matter where they are, as well as getting information for those aiming to provide care in times of emergencies. A team of young people from around the world has been working on this in response to increasing costs of health care as well as to address issues of low access to care. Now in the fourth year of the project, we are aiming to take the extensive information we possess and convert it into a functional, needs-driven tool that will benefit potential health service users as well as those needing to access information about specific regions during a crisis. To respond to the market as well as avoid generating redundant mHealth tools, the GHAP app – GHAPP – will have three main functions: 1) provide information on care available in other locations if services are not possible locally (including cost, waiting times and quality); 2) collect information on urgent medical needs in a specific location in the immediate aftermath of a disaster; and 3) provide an integrated platform to other web-based health information that already meets public health needs and international quality standards.
About GHAPP
In times of crisis, wireless internet might be the only medium that connects those affected by disaster and the rest of the world, thus facilitating prompt information exchange about the extent of
the disaster as well as urgent needs. Whilst organisations and governments react instantaneously, and humanitarian aid for casualties is usually mobilised rapidly, the suitable allocation of resources
faces many challenges. Additionally, health care services may either not meet the requirements or are not accessible for those in need. For this reason, people hit by disaster and affected by medical emergencies should be able to help themselves by accessing global healthcare.
The Global Health Access Project (GHAP) focused on providing information for people in need of medical care no matter where they are, as well as getting information for those aiming to provide care in times of emergencies. A team of young people from around the world has been working on this in response to increasing costs of health care as well as to address issues of low access to care. Now in the fourth year of the project, we are aiming to take the extensive information we possess
and convert it into a functional, needs-driven tool that will benefit potential health service users as well as those needing to access information about specific regions during a crisis. To respond to the market as well as avoid generating redundant mHealth tools, the GHAP app – GHAPP – will have three main functions: 1) provide information on care available in other locations if services are not possible locally (including cost, waiting times and quality); 2) collect information on urgent medical
needs in a specific location in the immediate aftermath of a disaster; and 3) provide an integrated platform to other web-based healh informationthat already meets public health needs and
international quality standards.
3. Integrated platform
Recent reports indicate there may be over 90,000 apps available that are in some way considered eHealth/mHealth tools. We do not wish to add to this list unnecessarily, but instead to provide a platform that would link to those tools meeting major international quality standards guidelines on the information they provide. This will limit wasted or redundant effort as well as improve networks between the range of tools already available.
In short, we do not aim to develop another mHealth for the market but rather respond to a clear need for effective health crisis tools. We do aim to meet international quality standards such as those established by the Health-on-on-the Net (HON) Code to better link best practice and information across many health domains.
General
We are focusing heavily on design thinking as we develop GHAPP. For example, text and colours will all be accessible by largest number of individuals (we assess this using the Exclusion Calculator from Cambridge Engineering). The opening screen will offer only two options: “Get Information” and “Urgent Care Needs”. Language will be simple and clear, allowing better chance for direct translation, though we would aim for long-term goals of having GHAPP in many languages.
This is not meant to appear as an overstated effort that would be impossible to complete in a short time. Most of the researchers on this project to-date have been volunteers, and any funds received on this work go directly to decreasing their financial sacrifice when involved. Extensive work has already been completed and sufficient data will be available to generate an evidence-based app in the near future.
Our aim with all of this is to support those in need of health information, urgent services and information on those in need. We believe our approach is sustainable and also supports the development of young people committed to humanitarian services and research.
Scalability
We believe the overview of this work indicates that we have a phased approach to the GHAPP, which was initiated several years ago. Any of the three aims could be the focus of the current phase, if it was felt all three were too ambitious for one step. However, we have a clear plan and leadership system to ensure all goals are realistic and evidence-driven. We are also able to focus our work on specific locations as opposed to assuming a global rollout with many languages in the first phase. As mentioned longer term and wider scale goals include multi-lingual capacity, ensuring valid information and crisis-specific information and finally medical travel details (e.g. visas).