Amama has resided in a rural area of northern Ghana throughout her entire life. In 2022, she began labor with her first baby. Traditionally, women deliver at home with assistance from a local birthing attendant; however, Amama faced last-minute difficulties, leading to the decision to visit a hospital. Regrettably, there were no ambulances available in the area, and the closest hospital was half an hour away, forcing Amama to utilize a motorcycle taxi, leaving her spouse and caregiver behind.
Amama endured the subsequent 30 minutes navigating bumpy unpaved roads to reach the hospital. She was in distress and apprehensive. Upon her arrival, she discovered that her child had not made it.
Sadly, Amama’s experience is not an isolated case. Globally, over 700 women perish each day due to avoidable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. A shortage of transportation to medical facilities plays a significant role in these fatalities.
Moving Health was established by MIT students to offer individuals like Amama a safer method of reaching hospitals. Initiated as part of a class at MIT D-Lab, the organization collaborates with local communities in rural Ghana to provide a network of motorized tricycle ambulances for areas lacking emergency transport options.
The locally-produced ambulances are crafted to navigate the tough terrain of rural Ghana, outfitted with medical provisions and designed to accommodate caregivers and family members.
“We are creating the first emergency transportation network focusing on rural areas,” stated Moving Health CEO and co-founder Emily Young ’18. “Our goal is to deliver emergency transportation at a lower cost and with vehicles tailored to local requirements. Initially, a report estimated there were just 55 ambulances for a nation with over 30 million inhabitants. Currently, there is increased coverage, yet the last-mile regions still struggle to access dependable emergency transport.”
At present, Moving Health’s ambulances and emergency transportation network serve over 100,000 individuals in northern Ghana who previously lacked dependable medical conveyance.
One of those individuals is Amama. During her latest pregnancy, she managed to utilize a Moving Health ambulance to reach the hospital. This time, she journeyed in a clean environment supplied with medical resources and surrounded by her loved ones. Upon arrival, she successfully delivered healthy twins.
Transforming a classroom concept into a company
Young and Sade Nabahe ’17, SM ’21 crossed paths while enrolled in Course 2.722J (D-Lab: Design), which encourages students to approach international projects like engineering consultants. Their group explored solutions for safely and swiftly transporting pregnant women in remote segments of Tanzania to hospitals. Young attributes the guidance of D-Lab instructor Matt McCambridge for assisting students to extend their project discussions beyond the classroom. Fellow co-founder Eva Boal ’18 joined the initiative in the subsequent year.
The initial concept involved constructing a trailer that could affix to any motorcycle for transporting women. After the preliminary projects, the students secured funding from MIT’s PKG Center and the MIT Undergraduate Giving Campaign, which they utilized to travel to Tanzania during the following Independent Activities Period (IAP). That was when they assembled their first prototype in the field.
The founders recognized the necessity to gain a deeper understanding of the issue from local perspectives, conducting interviews with over 250 pregnant women, healthcare providers, motorcycle operators, and birth attendants.
“We aimed to ensure that the community took the lead in designing this solution. We needed to learn more from them about why emergency transportation systems fail in these regions,” Young explains. “Ultimately, we completely re-engineered our vehicle.”
After graduating from MIT in 2018, the founders purchased one-way tickets to Tanzania and rolled out a new prototype. A primary objective was to create a product that could be fabricated locally, thereby supporting the economy.
Nabahe and Boal departed from the company in 2020, but Moving Health’s mission continued to spread, prompting Young to receive inquiries from organizations in approximately 15 different nations interested in expanding the company’s pilot initiatives.
Young found the strongest alignment in Ghana, where she encountered two local engineers, Ambra Jiberu and Sufiyanu Imoro, who were innovating by building vehicles from scratch and developing cutting-edge agricultural tools. With the addition of these two engineers to the team, she felt confident in the capacity to devise a solution within Ghana.
Applying the insights gained in Tanzania, the new team organized numerous interviews and focus groups to comprehend the Ghanaian healthcare framework. They redesigned their product as a fully motorized tricycle, reflecting the most prevalent mode of transport in northern Ghana. Today, Moving Health concentrates exclusively on Ghana, with local production and daily operations managed by Country Director and CTO Isaac Quansah.
Moving Health is dedicated to establishing a comprehensive emergency transport network. To realize this vision, Moving Health’s team develops community-operated dispatch systems that entail organizing emergency contact numbers, training local health workers, dispatchers, and drivers, while integrating all of this within the existing healthcare infrastructure. The company also engages in educational initiatives in the communities they serve.
Moving Health officially launched its ambulances in 2023. Each ambulance features an enclosed area for patients, family members, and medical personnel, equipped with a removable stretcher and supplies such as first aid kits, oxygen, IVs, and more. The operational cost is approximately one-tenth that of a conventional ambulance.
“We’ve created an impressive, small-scale manufacturing facility, led by our local engineering team, that boasts exceptional quality,” Young remarks. “Additionally, we run an apprenticeship program managed by our lead engineers that enables young individuals to acquire valuable hard skills. We aim to provide economic opportunities within these communities. This solution is authentically Ghanaian-made.”
In contrast to national ambulances, Moving Health’s units are stationed within rural communities, at local health centers, facilitating swifter response times.
“Positioning the ambulances in the communities of these individuals, at their nearest health centers, makes a significant difference,” says Young. “We are striving to craft an emergency transportation solution that not only caters to rural areas but also emphasizes maternal health, prioritizing women’s input regarding what actually functions in these regions.”
A critical support for mothers
Upon her initial arrival in Ghana, Young encountered Sahada, a local woman who recounted her experience during her first delivery at the age of 18. Sahada had planned to give birth within her community with assistance from a local birthing attendant, but as labor progressed, she felt intense pain, prompting the attendant to recommend she seek the nearest hospital. Lacking ambulances or any vehicles in the area, Sahada’s husband summoned a motorcycle driver, who transported her alone on a three-hour journey to the hospital.
“The weather was rainy, the roads incredibly muddy, and she was in significant anguish,” Young remembers. “She was already extremely concerned for her baby, and then the motorcycle skidded, resulting in an accident. They got back on the bike, covered in mud; Sahada had no way of knowing if her baby had survived, before finally reaching the maternity ward.”
Though Sahada was able to deliver a healthy baby boy, her story remained unforgettable for Young.
“The experience was exceedingly traumatic, and what’s astonishing is that this counts as a successful birth statistic,” Young reflects. “We frequently hear similar stories.”
This year, Moving Health intends to expand into a new area in northern Ghana. The team is also investigating additional methods by which their network can deliver healthcare to remote regions. However, regardless of the company’s evolution, the team remains thankful for witnessing their D-Lab project transform into such a meaningful solution.
“Our long-term vision is to demonstrate that this model can function on a national scale and enhance the existing health system,” Young shares. “We are also eager to explore mobile healthcare outreach and other transportation solutions. While we have always concentrated on maternal health, we remain aware of other community initiatives that may assist in improving healthcare on a broader scale.”