Project NECTAR – IFMSA-Thailand

Name of the activity: Project NECTAR

Country/NMO: IFMSA-Thailand

Program: Health Systems

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Health systems as a whole, Health System Innovation

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities)

General description:

With the vision of improving treatment outcome in out-of-hospital emergency cases. Our team created a portable chip that holds essential patient information through NFC technology. Emergency healthcare providers can simply hold these tags to their phone and the patient’s information will be displayed on their phone!

Problem statement:

NECTAR foresees potential in digitalization of the healthcare system– a next step towards a paradigm shift in medicine. NECTAR is an initiative that will spearhead digital health, and our first step is in data. Amidst the current lack of understanding of digitized healthcare, we must first raise awareness of these first steps. We believe that youths are the most impactful changemakers in the community. And through NECTAR, we will inspire medical students to step outside of their comfort zone.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Doctors
• Other health professionals
• Elderly people

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Doctors
• Other health professionals
• Elderly people

Objectives:

1. To make publicly available, the Health Information Vector (HIVE) System in hospitals across Thailand within November 2026.
2. To host a monthly, publicly available, webinar/seminar program with guest speakers from the medical field until (but not limited to) November 2026.

Indicators:

Objective 1

1. November 2023, HIVE accumulates 5,000 users, available in 54 hospitals nationwide.
2. November 2024, HIVE accumulates 20,000 users, available in 116 hospitals nationwide.
3. November 2026, HIVE accumulates 500,000 users, available in 563 hospitals in all five regions of Thailand.

Objective 2

1. November 2023, webinars/seminars accumulate 400 participants.
2. November 2024, webinars/seminars accumulate 800 participants.
3. November 2026, webinars/seminars accumulate 1,500 participants.

Methodology:

Project NECTAR is separated into two independent components, Phase A and Phase B. Both our phases serve our main goals of inspiration and awareness. 

Phase A: Lecture Phase

Within this phase, we aim to inspire medical students and the general population through our interactive lectures. These webinars are not conducted in a strictly formal manner, but rather at a slower pace where students get to interact with the lecturer. Our lecturers consist of doctors who have graduated and pursue careers in fields outside of the typical medical profession.

Phase B: Innovative

This phase is considered to be our major phase. With our aim to inspire innovative minds in the medical community, it is only fitting to lead by showing rather than by telling. In this phase, we created a technology that will help improve the emergency medical service treatment. Our product will be used to save lives, but our journey will inspire more people to innovate and create more products like ours. 

Plans for evaluation:

Objective 1: As for userbase summation, our backend system will be tracking the number of users and registered hospitals. This is done without identifiers (eg. name, HN, etc.) in order to preserve integrity of our sensitive information.

Objective 2: NECTAR will keep track of audience quantity summation document that will be used to evaluate audience retention and participation throughout the year. Document will be updated during debriefing session of every webinar.

External collaborations:

1. Thai Health Promotion Foundation, government agency – financial grant.
2. King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lad Krabang (KMITL), university – resources.
3. King Mongkut’s Chaokhuntaharn Hospital (KMCH), hospital – resources.
4. HealthTAG, third-party Health Information provider – resources.
5. KMITL Research and Innovation Services (KRIS), ethical commitee – EC.