2008 Validation
Mashavu team worked on the following aspects of validation in 2008:
1. Proof-of-concept Development
2. On-the-ground Validation
3. Concept Validation
4. Business Plan Validation
5. Market Research
6. User Interface Testing
1. Proof-of-concept Development
 Proof of concept prototype in the lab. It gathers user data and measures Blood Pressure, Temperature, Weight, SpO2(not shown) and transmits it over cellphone to a web portal. |
 A happy customer at the Design Expo |
 Mashavu – User Interface |
 Mashavu – User Interface: Credits page |
A fully functional proof-of-concept has been developed and undergone numerous refinements based on feedback from doctors and patients. The prototype consists of various Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) biomedical devices (a blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, weighing scale, thermometer) that are interfaced to a laptop.
 Mashavu Team: Recruiting and Training Students at the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) in Tanzania.
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 The UAACC students had to make pitches about Mashavu in English and Swahili to qualify for working with the rest of the team. |
Five Mashavu team members teamed up with 20 students (ages 19 to 30) from the United African Alliance Community Centre (UAACC) in Imbaseni, Tanzania. For the next three weeks, the 25 students engaged in various activities related to community education and concept validation, business model validation, pilot testing of preliminary user interface and coalition building. Photographs of the validation activities and selected survey datasets are appended. Some of the activities that the joint student teams engaged in to validate the concept and business model for Mashavu include:
 Mashavu station operator (Salvatori) checks temperature (and other vitals) of sick child (Mary) while mother watches |
 Salvatori enters info on Mashavu station which is immediately posted on web portal. An alert is sent to Dr. Milnes who has e-adopted Mary. |
 Dr. Milnes (US) gets alert, reviews info and recommends visiting doctor immediately. He also sends info and recommendations to nearest clinic. Child is carried to the nearest clinic – an hour’s walk away. |
 Tanzanian doctor at local clinic treats Mary and she becomes healthy again. |
 Performing the skit at a secondary school |
 One of our champions, Nanyaro addressing the crowd after the skit and asking questions. |
| Mashavu Skit: Health Education for communities followed by concept validation research for Mashavu. (We developed a three-part skit to engage and educate the audience and get richer feedback on Mashavu. First ten minutes focused on basics of health and hygiene. Next ten minutes on health indicators and what happens when they go out of normal range. The last ten minutes explained the Mashavu concept. The photos are from the last part. This 30 minute skit was followed by a question/answer session and surveys.) | |
Student teams spent multiple days visiting the local clinics and district hospital. They spoke to a number of nurses, doctors and patients. At one clinic, the majority of the patients were children (0 – 4 years old) who were brought in by their mothers. Some women had traveled for up to three hours to reach the clinic. We compiled notes of the challenges and costs involved in accessing healthcare and how the Mashavu system might make their life easier.
 We set up a Mashavu health station at a community festival. Children could get their weight for free. Adults were charged a small fee for weight and blood pressure. 300 TSh (25 cents) for weight or blood pressure and 500 TSh for both. A chart tells them whether or not their numbers are normal. We made about ten dollars in four hours! |
 Long Queues at the Mashavu station! |
 One Happy customer. |
…and a happy Mashavu station operator |
The teams interviewed more than 200 families on health related issues and on how much they would pay to use it. The teams also set up a Mashavu Station (no networking) during a community festival and provided weight and blood pressure measurements for free to children and a small fee for adults. They made about ten dollars in four hours. Mashavu team found out that the average amount people were willing to pay according to this dataset is TSh 1,382 = 1.2 USD.
Preliminary User Interface Testing at Good Hope Orphanage
 A caregiver learning how to use an automatic blood pressure measuring device. |
 An elderly caregiver learning how to use the Mashavu user interface. She picked it up in 15 minutes and LOVED playing with the computer. |
Students performed the Mashavu play for one of our partners – Good Hope orphanage. This was followed by teaching the orphanage caregivers to use a weighing scale, blood pressure monitor and the user interface for Mashavu (on a laptop computer). The caregivers (all women: 20 to 60+ years) loved working with the computer and devices and tested them on the kids.