Abiodun Okesanya

HealthPointer - Smart Healthcare Assistant (Chatbot + Symptom Checker)​ PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS​ ​ Target Release 1.0 Product Manager Engineering Lead Designer Document status/ version In Progress Created 1 Table Of Content Problem.......................................................................................................................................................................................................2 Solution..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Use cases................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Value Proposition...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Target Persona..........................................................................................................................................................................6 Goals and Success criteria....................................................................................................................................................... 7 User experience........................................................................................................................................................................8 Competitor analysis.................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Local Competitors in Nigeria.....................................................................................................................................................9 International Competitors Operating in Nigeria.......................................................................................................................10 Competitive Positioning...........................................................................................................................................................11 Key features and releases...................................................................................................................................................... 12 User stories and requirements................................................................................................................................................14 Requirements per release (optional).......................................................................................................................................17 Business goal and objective................................................................................................................................................... 22 Out of scope............................................................................................................................................................................24 Questions and decision tracker...............................................................................................................................................26 2 Problem The healthcare system faces significant challenges that impact both patients and healthcare providers: ●​ Extended waiting times at healthcare facilities, burdening patients seeking care ●​ Limited access to reliable healthcare information, particularly in rural and underserved areas ●​ Inefficient appointment scheduling processes leading to facility overcrowding ●​ Insufficient healthcare professionals to meet population demands (1 doctor per 5,000 people might be applicabe in some countries; Nigeria, Ghana & Uganda, etc) ●​ Barriers to healthcare access including cost, distance, and time constraints ●​ Prevalence of self-diagnosis and delayed treatment due to information gaps Internal business problems solved: ●​ Reduced burden on healthcare professionals for routine inquiries ●​ More efficient patient triage and resource allocation ●​ Opportunity to collect valuable healthcare data to inform service improvements ●​ Digital transformation of appointment management systems Survey data indicates that 50% of respondents cite long waiting times as a primary challenge in seeing a doctor. Additionally, 36.7% are concerned about the high cost of consultation. Most people visit hospitals infrequently. This highlights the need for a solution that provides accessible and affordable preliminary medical guidance. 3 Solution The HealthPointer chatbot will address these challenges by providing users with a readily available, AI-powered symptom checker and information resource, potentially reducing the need for immediate in-person consultations for minor ailments. The chatbot is for preliminary guidance, not a replacement for a doctor. The AI-powered chatbot is designed to assist users with: ●​ Healthcare Inquiries: Providing conversational AI-powered chatbot for health inquiries. ●​ Symptom Checking: Offering preliminary guidance for common health conditions. ●​ Appointment Scheduling: Connecting users to doctors and healthcare facilities enabling them book appointments without having to visit the hospital. ●​ Ease of access to medical practitioners: Users from rural areas or even busy professionals can have access to online consultations. ●​ Accessibility: Works across multiple platforms (mobile and web) with offline capabilities. ●​ Smart record keeping: Provide smart record keeping to avoid overcrowding at physical health centers due to overbooking. ●​ Emergency Protocols: Includes clear escalation paths for urgent medical concerns ●​ Health Tips & Preventive Care: Educates users on common illnesses and self-care. 4 Use cases ●​ A user experiencing mild symptoms wants to check if they need to visit a doctor. ●​ A user experiencing mild flu symptoms wants to check possible causes and remedies. ●​ As a busy professional, I want to schedule healthcare appointments without visiting the facility. ●​ As a parent, I want reliable information about common childhood illnesses and when to seek professional care. ●​ As a user with an ongoing health condition, I want to track symptoms and determine when changes require medical attention. ●​ As a healthcare provider, I want to receive properly triaged patients with preliminary information already collected. ●​ As a user with limited technical knowledge, I want a simple interface to access health guidance. ●​ As a rural resident, I want to determine if my symptoms warrant traveling to a distant healthcare facility. Value Proposition HealthPointer provides users with faster, more affordable, and more convenient access to preliminary health information and symptom assessment, empowering them to make informed decisions about their healthcare needs and reducing the need to see a doctor so often. ●​ For Patients: Reduces reliance on Google searches and misinformation. 5 ●​ Doctor-Verified AI: The chatbot ensures higher trust by offering recommendations validated by medical professionals, increasing user confidence in AI-driven healthcare. ●​ For Healthcare Providers: Streamlines appointment bookings and improves patient engagement. ●​ For Businesses: Enables integration with telemedicine services, improving accessibility. Target personas​ Primary persona: ●​ Individuals aged: 18-45 years old, smartphone owner, internet-savvy, time-constrained, values convenience and efficiency in healthcare, needs quick answers and streamlined appointment booking. ●​ Parents seeking preliminary medical insights for children. ●​ Patients managing chronic conditions who need symptom tracking. Secondary personas: ●​ Rural Resident: Limited smartphone access, intermittent connectivity, faces geographic barriers to healthcare, needs reliability in low-bandwidth environments ●​ Healthcare Provider: Overloaded with routine consultations, seeks better patient triage and reduced administrative burden ●​ Family Caregiver: Makes healthcare decisions for multiple family members, needs reliable information to determine when to seek professional care 6 ●​ Elderly User: Limited digital literacy, requires simplified interface and clear instructions. ●​ Sports & Fitness Professionals: ●​ General Public: Goals and Success criteria ●​ Launch a functional chatbot covering at least 10 common health conditions within 12 months ●​ Achieve integration with a minimum of 20 healthcare facilities across 5 Nigerian states ●​ Achieve a user satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5 within 3 months of launch (measured through in-app surveys). ●​ Increase user trust, measured by doctor verifications, by 15% in the first 6 months of launch. ●​ Reduce the number of hospital visits per year, as measured by user surveys at 6 months, by 10% ●​ Reach 50,000 active users within the first year ●​ Maintain 90%+ system uptime, including in areas with intermittent connectivity ●​ Achieve 95% accuracy in symptom assessment (validated by healthcare professionals) ●​ Demonstrate measurable improvement in appointment adherence rates 7 User experience The user interface must be intuitive and easy to navigate for users of all technical skill levels. Special attention will be given to visually communicating trustworthiness and accuracy through design elements and clear disclaimers. Emphasize symptom checking and general health tips based on the survey data. Key flows to be designed: ●​ User onboarding and profile creation ●​ Symptom checker interaction sequence ●​ Appointment booking process ●​ Emergency escalation path ●​ Health information browsing experience ●​ Settings and preference management ​ Designs/ flows​ Refer to any mockups, concepts, storyboards, user journey flows, low fidelity designs (Figma or Miro links are appropriate). 8 Competitor analysis Local Competitors in Nigeria HelpMum (MamaBot AI) ●​ Focus: Maternal health, offering pregnancy-related guidance and postpartum care support ●​ Strengths: Targets a critical need in Nigeria where maternal mortality rates remain high; has facilitated over 10,000 conversations with pregnant women and mothers; WhatsApp integration increases accessibility ●​ Weaknesses: Limited integration with broader healthcare systems; potential scalability challenges in rural areas Zuri Health ●​ Focus: Regional telemedicine services across multiple African countries including Nigeria ●​ Strengths: Tailored to African contexts; offers SMS/WhatsApp/app-based solutions to bypass connectivity issues; partnerships with 16+ mobile network operators; network of 300+ doctors ●​ Weaknesses: Competes with global platforms offering more advanced symptom-checking tools Sila Health ●​ Focus: Middle Eastern markets with telemedicine services; expanding into Africa ●​ Strengths: Could leverage regional partnerships to enhance trust 9 ●​ Weaknesses: Limited localization for Nigerian languages and cultural nuances Apoio ●​ Focus: Mental health support in Brazil, with potential expansion into Nigeria ●​ Strengths: Specializes in CBT techniques, addressing growing mental health awareness ●​ Weaknesses: Cultural adaptation challenges and language barriers in multilingual Nigeria mDoc ●​ Focus: Chronic disease management ●​ Strengths: Addresses rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Nigeria ●​ Weaknesses: Requires consistent user engagement, challenging in low-literacy populations International Competitors Operating in Nigeria Ada Health ●​ Focus: AI-driven symptom checking and personalized health insights ●​ Strengths: Advanced diagnostic accuracy and global user base ●​ Weaknesses: Limited offline functionality and no local language support Buoy Health 10 ●​ Focus: Symptom triage and provider recommendations ●​ Strengths: Integrates with telemedicine platforms for seamless care transitions ●​ Weaknesses: Reliance on internet connectivity and lack of regional tailoring Woebot Health ●​ Focus: Mental health via conversational AI and CBT techniques ●​ Strengths: Addresses growing mental health needs with scalable solutions ●​ Weaknesses: Cultural relevance and trust issues in AI-driven emotional support Babylon Health ●​ Focus: Symptom checkers and telehealth consultations ●​ Strengths: Combines AI triage with human clinician oversight ●​ Weaknesses: High costs for premium services and limited integration with local providers Infermedica ●​ Focus: Clinical decision-support tools for symptom checking ●​ Strengths: Used by healthcare providers for accurate diagnostics ●​ Weaknesses: Primarily B2B-focused, with limited direct consumer engagement 11 Competitive Positioning The Smart Healthcare Assistant differentiates itself in the Nigerian market by offering: ●​ Comprehensive health support beyond specialized niches (unlike MamaBot's maternal focus) ●​ Offline functionality critical for Nigeria's intermittent connectivity ●​ Integration of symptom assessment with direct appointment scheduling ●​ Localization for Nigerian languages and cultural contexts ●​ Focus on the 10 most prevalent health conditions in Nigeria ●​ Accessibility across multiple platforms with low-bandwidth optimization Key features and releases Release phase 1 ●​ Core chatbot with basic health information capability ●​ Symptom checker covering 5 most common conditions (malaria, respiratory infections, fever, gastrointestinal issues, headache). The symptom checker will utilize a clinically validated algorithm and provide users with potential causes for their symptoms, along with recommendations for next steps. The algorithm should provide accurate results to build user trust. 12 ●​ User profile creation and management. ●​ Basic appointment scheduling with initial partner facilities. ●​ Offline content access for essential health information. ●​ Doctor Verification Feature: Implement a system for doctors to verify their profiles and contributions to the chatbot's knowledge base. ●​ Local Health Content: Prioritize the inclusion of information and guidance on common local health issues such as malaria, fever, and typhoid. ●​ Data Privacy and Security Module: A data privacy and security module that can clearly explain to users that the data is secured. Release phase 2 ●​ Expanded symptom checker (adding hypertension, diabetes, skin conditions, basic mental health, maternal health) ●​ Enhanced natural language processing with improved contextual understanding ●​ Integration with additional healthcare facilities ●​ Reminder system for appointments and medication ●​ User feedback collection and analysis system Release phase 3 ●​ Support for major Nigerian languages (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo) ●​ Advanced appointment management (rescheduling, cancellation, follow-ups) 13 ●​ Performance optimization for rural connectivity ●​ Educational content expansion ●​ Analytics dashboard for healthcare partners User stories and requirements Feature User story Requirement/s Example UI Release 1. Cross-Platform As a user, I want to access the - Responsive web design for all Responsive Release 1 Accessibility chatbot seamlessly across devices screen sizes. interface for web (web, mobile, tablet) for 24/7 support. - Browser compatibility (Chrome, and mobile Safari, Firefox). - Offline functionality for basic queries (e.g., symptom libraries) using service workers. 2. Account As a user, I want to create an - Multi-factor authentication Account Release 1 account securely to store my 14 Creation medical history and preferences. (email/SMS verification). registration form - HIPAA-compliant data encryption for stored information. - Integration with EHR systems for existing user data auto-fill. 3. Login Page - As a user, I want to log in - Session timeout after 15 minutes of Login form with securely to protect my sensitive inactivity. secure health data. - As a user, I want to be assured that my data is protected. - Compliance with GDPR/HIPAA for Release 1 authentication data handling. - Password complexity requirements (8+ characters, special symbols). 4. Symptom - As a user, I want to input - Structured symptom-checking flow Symptom Assessment & symptoms and receive guidance with follow-up questions (e.g., pain checker interface Triage on urgent care needs. location, severity). - As a user, I want to see that a - Integration with triage protocols to doctor has verified the information recommend care (e.g., ER vs. clinic). provided by the chatbot so that I can trust the advice. Release 1 - Exportable symptom logs for 15 provider review. 5. Appointment As a user, I want to book, - Real-time sync with clinic Appointment Scheduling reschedule, or cancel calendars. booking page appointments via the chatbot. Release 2 - Automated reminders (email/SMS) 24 hours before appointments. - Waitlist management for earlier slots. 6. Prescription As a user, I want to request - Integration with pharmacy systems Management prescription refills and receive for refill requests. dosage reminders. ●​Prescription Release 2 request form - Customizable reminders for medication adherence. - Alerts for potential drug interactions. 7. Manage As a user, I want to customize my - Options to update notification Settings preferences and notification preferences (e.g., email/SMS). settings easily. Settings page Release 2 - Ability to manage language settings and accessibility features (e.g., 16 text-to-speech). 8. Analytics As a user, I want access to my - Users can view analytics data such Analytics analytics over time so I can monitor as symptom trends and appointment dashboard my overall well-being. history over time. Release 3 - Filtering options to help users make specific searches (e.g., by date or condition). Requirements per release (optional) Release Feature User Story Requirement/s Release 1 Cross-Platform As a user, I want to access the chatbot - Responsive web design for all screen sizes. Accessibility seamlessly across devices (web, mobile, tablet) for 24/7 support. - Browser compatibility (Chrome, Safari, Firefox). - Offline functionality for basic queries (e.g., symptom libraries) using service workers. 17 - End-to-End Encryption: Ensuring all conversations remain secure with strong encryption and compliance with HIPAA/GDPR standards. - User-Controlled Data: Users can choose whether to store their medical history or use the chatbot in incognito mode for privacy. Account As a user, I want to create an account securely Creation to store my medical history and preferences. - Multi-factor authentication (email/SMS verification). - HIPAA-compliant data encryption for stored information. - Integration with EHR systems for existing user data auto-fill. Login Page As a user, I want to log in securely to protect my sensitive health data. - Session timeout after 15 minutes of inactivity. - Compliance with GDPR/HIPAA for data handling. - Password complexity requirements (8+ characters, special symbols). 18 Symptom As a user, I want to input symptoms and - Structured symptom-checking flow with follow-up Assessment & receive guidance on urgent care needs. questions (e.g., pain location, severity). Triage - Integration with triage protocols to recommend care (e.g., ER vs. clinic). - Exportable symptom logs for provider review. Appointment As a user, I want to book appointments via the Scheduling chatbot. - Real-time sync with clinic calendars. - Basic appointment booking functionality with initial partner facilities. Release 2 Expanded As a user, I want more conditions covered in - Add hypertension, diabetes, skin conditions, basic Symptom the symptom checker. mental health issues, and maternal health to the Checker symptom checker database. - Enhanced natural language processing with improved contextual understanding. 19 Appointment As a user, I want to reschedule or cancel - Advanced appointment management including Scheduling appointments via the chatbot. rescheduling and cancellation options. - Automated reminders (email/SMS) 24 hours before appointments. Prescription As a user, I want to request prescription refills - Integration with pharmacy systems for refill Management and receive dosage reminders. requests. - Customizable reminders for medication adherence. - Alerts for potential drug interactions. Feedback As a user, I want to provide feedback on my - User feedback collection system integrated into the Collection experience with the chatbot. chatbot interface for continuous improvement analysis. - Security Audit Feature: Allow users to review and delete stored chat history for better control over personal health data. 20 Release 3 Localization As a user, I want support for major Nigerian - Language localization functionality integrated into Support languages (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo). the chatbot interface for better accessibility across diverse demographics in Nigeria. Analytics As a user, I want access to my analytics over - Analytics dashboard displaying symptom trends time so I can monitor my overall well-being. and appointment history over time. - Filtering options to help users make specific searches (e.g., by date or condition). Educational As a user, I want access to more health tips - Expanded database of curated health education Content and preventive care resources. content covering common illnesses and self-care Expansion practices. - Content optimized for rural connectivity and low-bandwidth environments. 21 Business Goals and Objectives Business Model and Revenue Streams To ensure the sustainability and scalability of HealthPointer, the business model should be tailored to Nigeria's healthcare landscape while leveraging the web platform as its initial focus. Future expansion to mobile apps, offline functionality, and other platforms can be considered based on user adoption and feedback. 1. ​ Business Model ●​ Web Platform Focus: The initial release will center around a web-based platform accessible via desktop and mobile browsers. This ensures wide accessibility without requiring app installation. ●​ Freemium Model: Offer basic symptom-checking features for free while charging for premium features such as advanced condition tracking, appointment reminders, or analytics dashboards. ●​ B2B Partnerships: Collaborate with healthcare facilities, telemedicine providers, and insurance companies to generate revenue through referral fees, subscription packages, or data analytics services. 2. ​ Revenue Streams Stream Description Pricing Strategy Target Market Freemium Subscriptions Basic features are free; premium features Tiered pricing based on Individual users (e.g., chronic condition tracking) at features 22 ₦1,500/month Healthcare Facility Referrals Charge partner facilities for successful Pay-per-referral model Healthcare facilities Commission-based pricing Telemedicine providers Volume-based discounts Corporate patient referrals (₦500-₦1,500 per referral) Telemedicine Integration Revenue-sharing agreements with telemedicine platforms for consultations initiated via HealthPointer (15-25% per consultation fee) Corporate Wellness Annual subscriptions for companies to use Programs HealthPointer for employee health organizations management (₦2,000-₦5,000 per employee/year) Data Monetization Sell anonymized healthcare insights to Custom pricing Public sector public health researchers or government agencies (₦500,000-₦2M per dataset) 23 3. ​ Pricing Strategy ●​ Affordable pricing tailored to Nigeria's socioeconomic demographics. ●​ Flexible payment options including online payments (via Paystack/Flutterwave) and airtime billing for rural users. 4. ​ Future Considerations ●​ Expansion to mobile apps and offline SMS-based services for rural areas with limited internet access. ●​ Integration with wearable devices and telemedicine video consultations in subsequent releases. Out of scope ●​ Direct medical diagnosis or treatment (system provides information only but does not replace doctors). ●​ Prescription services or medication ordering. ●​ Emergency response system or critical care guidance ●​ Complex medical condition assessment beyond the specified 10 conditions ●​ Full electronic health record system integration ●​ Video telemedicine consultations (future consideration) 24 ●​ Wearable device integration (future consideration) ●​ AI-based diagnostic imaging analysis The HealthPointer chatbot is not intended to provide diagnoses or replace consultations with qualified healthcare professionals. It should not be used for emergency medical situations. 25 Questions and decision tracker Keep track of any open questions and decisions that need to be made. Some decisions have tradeoffs - document these here so people know that the discussions have happened and there is awareness of the tradeoffs. Date Question/ Decision Asked By Answer Status 24/03/2025 More clarity on offline functionality and Cloud/DevOps Pending Engineer Pending how that can be achieved will be needed. 24/03/2025 What features exactly are we adding for this mvp, are we integrating any payment features during this mvp 26 Document’s Link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B41LMrzH9BKWn_lxaYSby2NTk99OK3kHgH3K8WCAgUM/edit?usp=sharing 27