How AI tools are improving women’s health and wellbeing

Testimony Adeyemi, an AI engineer with Healthtracka, a health tech organisation, says in this interview with Sade Oguntola that it is possible to make health tests easy and accessible to everyone, particularly women, through different approaches, including Artificial Intelligence.

Let Lola app take the period stress away. How did you come by this AI app to track menstrual periods?

At our organisation, Healthtracka, we love to make healthcare services easier and more accessible to everyone. When people feel some type of way, instead of going to the hospital to sit down for long hours and all of that, they can book a test with us. For example, they can book a general body checkup with us. We come to their house, and we take their sample. So, we take the stress of walking into the health for the test away from them. We let them talk to one of our doctors so that they could receive treatment. It is all about making life easy for everyone.

Now, how did we come by Lola, the app to track menstrual periods? At the beginning of this year, we thought about how we can use AI to make people’s lives easier. Our focus was to adopt an AI to help women track their menstrual periods more easily, putting it on WhatsApp. This will not require that people download any app or difficult technology. All they have to do is just open WhatsApp, text, or talk with Lola.

 

Can you explain in more detail how this works?

You only need to text its number on WhatsApp. When you say hello to Lola, she’s going to ask you for a few details about your period. With this basic information, data is created, and then Lola will start to send timely reminders about menstrual periods.

 

How will that make life easy for a young girl who has just entered menarche?

A lot of times, tools for women to track their periods are not readily available. They just go by the day, and maybe in class or some embarrassing place they find out their menstrual period has started. Often they wouldn’t be sure of what to do; they are scared or might even be embarrassed if it happens in a public place.

So, it will help, especially with young girls. It will provide them with all the information; it will track that date for them and send them timely reminders a few days before their period to make sure to get pads and stay away from wearing clothes that can be easily stained. It will make them more aware of what is going on in their body. So, overall, it helps them since they don’t have to track it themselves.

 

Was there any background study to understand how applicable this app will be to Nigerian girls?

Yes, in our background study, we found out that one in five girls in secondary schools do not go to school on their period for different reasons. The 13- to 16-year-old girls are the ones most negatively affected. Unfortunately, there are limited Nigerian-made solutions to these issues. The most popular application on the market is called Flow,” developed by white men. So, it is for white women at the end of the day. But we want a product to help Nigerians—something that was made by Nigerians for Nigerians. That is why we called her Lola. She understands English and other major local languages. For example, if you speak Igbo to her, she will reply to you with Igbo.

 

Aside from helping to track menstrual periods, what other things does Lola do?

It provides all information about women’s health so you can ask her questions like, “Why is my period late? and What is going on?” She can give information that maybe the period is late because of diet, exercise, or other things, and then she can refer you to a doctor for more information if what is required is too much for an AI to give.

One of the things that we are working on and which we should launch in the next few months is that Lola should also be able to support pregnant women. It is such that when a woman is pregnant, she talks to Lola, and then every week it sends the pregnant woman information about the stages of her pregnancy. It sends messages on what she needs to do and answers the questions she may have in her mind.

 

For a woman or a young girl in the village, how can she access this given that she might not even have money to buy data?

This is actually very free; it is a free product, so women can just text the number. That is all. We are trying to get more people to know about the number and to make sure that we have it available for everyone. It doesn’t take too much; anyone from anywhere with any background can use it.

 

Let “Lola take the period stress away.” What are those period stressors that Lola will take away?

Number one is remembering dates and getting periods on at unexpected places and unexpected times. That stress or anxiety you get on waking up and you are not sure what to expect is removed because Lola will tell you it’s coming next week and she will send you reminders and make sure that you’re not blindsided by your period.

 

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding the menstrual period. Will this app also help to dispel these?

Definitely, a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding the menstrual period will be dispelled because we have trained her with the right information. So anytime any question is asked of her, she can give the correct information at all times, and because she’s very conversational. Maybe a woman is going through menstrual pain and she’s ashamed of it. Lola can have that conversation with her that menstrual pain is nothing to be ashamed of for anybody experiencing it. So she’s able to have conversations with these women and reduce the myths surrounding menstruation.

 

At Healthtracka, what other AI apps have you developed to better the health of Nigerians?

This is the only one we have right now, but we have lots of other things that we are working on as well. Currently, we have an HPV self-sampling kit. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of death due to cancer in women in Nigeria. A lot of women don’t get tested for it because the regular testing is very painful and very invasive. It requires going to the hospital, and women tend to avoid it. and the test is very gruesome. So a lot of women tend to avoid it. We came up with a very simple kit to test HPV, which is the virus responsible for cervical cancer. The kit is just like a kit to test for pregnancy. We partner with pharmacies, like Medplus Pharmacy, to make the kits available for women who need to get an HPV test done.

We have our urinary tract infection (UTI) test kit, too. We named it Peach. Women can take their urine sample, walk into any pharmacy, and ask for a urinary tract infection (UTI) test kit. It is given the name peach. We are aware of the stigma surrounding these things. So, we have in mind that any woman should be able to walk into a pharmacy and say I want a peach, and then they can give her the kits. In every kit, we have a set of instructions on how to use it. Also, we orientate the pharmacists themselves so they also know how it should be used. The kit is given back to the pharmacy, and then we run the test and then send her the results via our email. So, she is not required to go back and forth between the pharmacy and the hospital.

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Are there other things you’re doing for women’s health?

There is also a kit to test for sexually transmitted diseases. This kit is called Lemon. A fact is that younger women are more vulnerable to getting infected by sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. We want to make sure testing is easily accessible; we want to remove all those barricades and make sure everybody can just walk into a lab for these tests if they so desire. They only need to walk into one of our partner pharmacies and ask for a lemon. They need their urine for the test. The test kit is handed back to the pharmacy for us to test to confirm the exact infection. We made that just so it would be easier for every woman, especially to test for all of these STIs and quickly address them before it becomes a big issue.

We have our websites where people can book for these things; we operate in almost all the states in Nigeria. Currently, we have lots of partner pharmacies that we work with to ensure access to these kits. Every community has at least one pharmacy. So, we are collaborating with pharmacists to have these kits in every community across the country.

 

How reproducible are the results from these kits?

They are very accurate; I don’t want to say 100%. We use a network of accredited labs as well as our lab to run these samples. When we get the results from the lab, our doctors go over the results to analyse the results. They make sure that they are of the best quality and there are no errors at all. Individuals can also request home service for laboratory tests, and if a person wants to talk to a doctor at any time, we have doctors available who can do that as well.

 

In years to come, where do you see Lola transforming the health of young ladies and women in Nigeria?

Right now we have thousands of women who are using Lola already, and they always come back to say that they are very grateful that it’s making their lives easier; that she’s sending them reminders before time so that way they’re able to plan accordingly. I see it going way above pregnancy to include the newborn mothers. A lot of newborn mothers are unsure of what to do, so I see AI becoming a guide that can give information and support to not just women but everyone concerning their health and everything else.