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Publieke samenvattingen SBIR oproep Betere toegang gezondheidszorg en onderwijs Midden-Oosten en Noord-Afrika fase 2

Laatst gecontroleerd op:
5 januari 2022
Gepubliceerd op:
4 januari 2022

13 ondernemers zijn geselecteerd om innovaties te ontwikkelen die bijdragen aan een betere toegang tot gezondheidszorg en onderwijs in Egypte, Irak, Libanon, Marokko, Palestijnse gebieden, Tunesië en Jemen. Deze ondernemers hebben succesvol een haalbaarheidsonderzoek afgerond en krijgen 2 jaar en een budget van maximaal € 200.000 per project. 

In samenwerking met lokale partijen ontwikkelen deze ondernemers hun innovatie in het land van hun keuze. Deze SBIR is gericht op zorg en onderwijs.

Het onderdeel gezondheidszorg gaat over ondersteuning op afstand, om:

  • apparatuur in landelijke klinieken draaiende te houden;
  • zorgpersoneel ter plaatse beter te ondersteunen en trainen;
  • patiënten op afstand op slimme manieren nabehandeling en lichaamsbeweging te geven; en
  • leefstijladviezen en voorlichting te geven aan patiënten en andere moeilijk bereikbare doelgroepen.

Het onderdeel onderwijs gaat over het (digitaal) beschikbaar stellen van bestaand lesmateriaal en informatie aan moeilijk bereikbare doelgroepen en daarmee in de praktijk laten oefenen.

Omdat dit internationale projecten zijn, zijn de projectsamenvattingen in het Engels.

Digi Surfer B.V. - Digital Inclusion for Education - Morocco

Digi Surfer is conducting a pilot with refurbished laptops. This is to educate people with no basic digital skills in remote areas in Morocco. This can stimulate remote education. Which is especially important since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. This project also links with trained teachers from the Berber-Moroccan community in the Netherlands. It ensures a structural increase of the possibilities in remote areas by working together with local partners. In the MENA-region, large-scale efforts are being made to create a digital society and thus it is of great importance that everyone can come along.

Spectator Healthcare Technology B.V. - Autism Telehealth Solution for Morocco

There are at least 300,000 autistic children in Morocco. 30 parents associations try to organize treatments. But in fact, there is few follow-ups done by autism professionals. Parents feel abandoned and are desperate. This situation creates a lot of suffering and there is a lot of demand for help. This project builds a dedicated digital coaching platform between autistism trainers, autistic children and their parents. This platform ensures:
  • regular communication with care givers;
  • access to personalized and evidence-based medical information;
  • (remote) control of patients progress by psychologists;
  • access via chat, video-teleconsultation, questionnaires, connected to intelligent action plans and procedures.

LeQuest B.V. - Digital and Asynchronous Medical device training with Outcome Guarantee for Healthcare professionals In Remote regions, Morocco

Project DAMOGHIR investigates the potential for an interactive, medical device training with guaranteed outcome. This training uses the full immersive, interactive software of LeQuest in rural Morocco. LeQuest is an innovative company in Morocco. The preliminary feasibility study focussed on mother and childcare in rural regions. These regions show a lack of adequate training in medical devices. This leads to insufficient or inappropriate treatment. The digital training of LeQuest contributes to (better) use of the devices. It results in higher quality of care. And a lower degree of misdiagnoses and complications. The training enables healthcare professionals to use medical devices correct. And repair these devices themselves.

AiDx Medical B.V. - Low-cost, digital and automated microscopy for automated disease screening, Morocco

There are common public health problems in Morocco. Such as tuberculosis (TB), urinary tract infection (UTI) and intestinal parasites (IP). Fast and accurate diagnosis is a major challenge. Because there are yearly approximately 32,000 new cases of TB reported. Delayed diagnosis and treatment can result into more complications. This comes with higher risk of mortality. Screening in resource-poor settings uses common diagnostic techniques for TB, UTI and IP. These techniques are manual microscopy of sputum, urine and stools. The reliability of manual microscopy-based technique is limited. To improve the technique in the rural areas of Morocco, they want to develop automated microscopy for expert-independent and multiple disease screening which is:
  • novel-based;
  • revolutionary;
  • low-cost for use.

InukaCare B.V. - Inuka Feasibility in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)

Inuka, KIT Royal Tropical Institute and Juzoor for Health and Social Development want to lower the barriers to mental health support. They want to make mental support more affordable, accessible and effective to:
  • young adults;
  • women
  • refugees; and
  • other marginalized communities in the Palestinian society.
These groups are more than ever in need of mental health care and psycho-social support. The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the already challenging socio-economic context. It aggravated inequality and increased stress, anxiety and depression. With this project they will test if their solution can support and improve the wellbeing of vulnerable groups.

Stichting Thaki Nederland - Build your own buddy (Bob); digital package for children’s’ resilience - Lebanon

Toxic stress as result of trauma or hardship, has detrimental effects for children. Is has effects on the neurobiological, emotional and social development of children. Children in Lebanon currently have no or limited access to science-based interventions that may enhance their resilience, because of:
  • poor health literacy;
  • lack of resources; and
  • lack of trained professionals.
Thaki transforms the existing science-based programme Build your own buddy (Bob) into a digital and self-guided package. It is for young elementary school children, their teachers and parents. Its purpose is to increase resilience in children. It uses strategies on how to deal with overwhelming feelings. Also the program is  marketable to other Arabic speaking countries. The program is developed by TNO.

Educared B.V. - B-Incredible Me, Lebanon

This project partly digitizes DCI Lebanon's mental health and psychosocial support program 'Incredible Me'. This results in a blended method: B-Incredible Me. Educared, DCI Lebanon and Twinx:
  • are fully developing the blended method;
  • ensure the necessary organizational change;
  • iterate towards a suitable business model.
This business model suits the possibilities and needs of its target groups. This ensures optimal preparation for the market in Lebanon. They do this with an agile project management method. Several short iterations deliver minimal workable products (versions) of the blended method.

MeduProf-S B.V. - Conversational learning application for remote health workers in Egypt

MeduProf-S cooperates with its partners Helpr and Accent. Together they develop a conversational learning application for remote health workers in Egypt. This innovative way of learning makes it possible for remote health workers groups to continue their own development. And make lifelong learning a habit. The lessons in the application will be adapted to the local situation and written in colloquial Arabic. In this way it will be easier to translate theory into practical skills.

Layco Medical Devices B.V. - Training application for video laryngoscopy in remote areas in Egypt

In Egypt only lower-skilled staff is available. Especially in the healthcare in remote areas. This is a result of many high educated healthcare workers that leave Egypt to earn more elsewhere. The available medical equipment is often too complex in maintenance and use for the lower-skilled medical staff. Another result due to the brain drain is that new staff can be trained less well. This exacerbates the problem and worsens the situation. So, there is a concrete need for cheap, easy-to-use products and training programs. Layco aims to develop a widely deployable training application that can be used on a large scale in remote regions in MENA countries, but first focusing on Egypt. Initially for Layco's own product (GoodScope), but eventually also as a platform technology for and with local content providers.

Digital Buddy International B.V. io - Digital Buddy for Yemen

In Yemen, 4 million children have no access to education. The Digital Buddy project brings perspective to girls and boys aged 9 to 14. The project develops online education programs for teachers in Yemen. So they can to educate Yemen children with a smart, simple application and Learning Management System. This system allows online and offline interaction with the teacher. It also increases the number of students per teacher and ensures better standardized education. It works even in harsh conditions with little or no internet via SMS or voice. The project also involves local partners to create training materials and train local teachers.

Upinion Netherlands B.V. - E-Health learning platform for community midwives in rural Yemen

In rural Yemen many health facilities are non-functional. They neglect midwives in their professional development. This is due to inconsistency and lack of proper certification. This project offers a digital communication and e-health learning platform. It is easily accessible. The platform increases the quality and ongoing support for community midwives. This eases the burden on healthcare institutions. It provides capacity building training in remote areas. Areas with logistical challenges and movement restrictions due to conflict and COVID-19. And it expands the reach of beneficiaries (women of childbearing age).

AppsForce B.V. - Al Siha, Tunisia

At first glance, AI Siha is a simple app. It provides Tunisians with a comprehensive list of medical articles in Arabic. Most (scientific) texts are in English. Only few are available in Arabic and other languages of the MENA region. This leads to socio-economic inequality, both within and across countries. It is causing an ever-widening health gap. It also has implications for education and the financial sector. Bridging this gap with standard methods is impossible. Human translators are slow and expensive. They also do not have enough expertise. Translation machines like Google are insufficient. Their accuracy is around 40%. This makes most English-Arabic machine translations unusable. This project is developing a machine learning translation machine. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) ​​learns from local people (crowdsourcing). The project has been proven feasible. Building these models drastically reduces the cost and time of translating these documents (up to 95%) while achieving a 99% accuracy level.

Khanem International - Establishing Dutch Online Academy for Craftmanship and Entrepreneurship focused on teaching women and youth to sew and/or become an entrepreneur in Iraq and MENA Region, Iraq

Khanem delivers high quality practical e-learning programs for fashion design and business development. These training courses focus on (self-)employment of vulnerable women and young people in Iraq. It contributes to their improved employability and socio-economic status. To compensate for the failing education system in Iraq. To reach Iraq and then the MENA region, they provide a digital presence with an application and website. This website offers online and blended learning courses. It also offers an online environment for participants to sell their products in their own neighbourhood.

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  • Ministerie van Economische Zaken
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