Improving the “effective ambulance Management system” in Ashaiman, Ghana through software optimizations and UAV flying
Background
For the past three years, Engagement Global's ASA program has been supporting the Technical University of Würzburg Schweinfurt's project to implement and improve a working ambulance routing system in Ashaiman, a town in Greater Accra, Ghana. The project was initiated to enable the transport of pregnant women and children within the Ashaiman Municipality to the nearest and suitable equipped hospital as quickly as possible. You can find out more about the background and why this support is needed in Ashaiman particular, here.
After developing and introducing the routing system with QGIS, an open geographic information system, in the first year of the project phase, the project team in the second year already started to improve the system to make it more accessible.
Project goals
After commencing the project in Ghana last year, 2022, two new ambulances are currently operating within Ashaiman. This year, the project team is focusing on equipping the routing system with functions that are required on site to allow a smooth and steady flow of patient transport. Therefore, the programming team is developing new plug-ins and simplifying the processes in the software.
At the same time, part of the team is working on a database system to integrate reliable data about the surrounding hospitals and their equipment and availability into the system. In addition, all data collected on the completed transports of patients should be stored securely and systematically with the help of the database.
Finally, this year's project team is planning to use a drone from the Technical University of Würzburg Schweinfurt to fly over the entire area of Ashaiman in order to derive the condition of the roads from the geodata obtained. This allows ambulance routes to be created more efficiently by avoiding poorly constructed and unpaved roads in the routing system.
