Why are you participating for Based Africa?

I grew up in Nairobi, immersed in the vibrant energy of a city where people are resilient, hopeful, and united no matter what challenges we face. But there's one story that profoundly changed everything for me and my team.

Our teammate's uncle was diagnosed with cancer—a fight no one should have to face alone. He sought the best treatment in South Africa, and after a grueling journey, he was declared cancer-free. His family was overjoyed when he returned home. But soon after, the unthinkable happened: the cancer came back. Our Kenyan doctors, eager to help, reached out to the South African hospital for his medical records. They received no response. Without access to his treatment history, they were forced to treat him without a roadmap, like navigating in the dark. The lack of a secure, standard way to share sensitive medical data wasn't just a hurdle—it was a heartbreaking barrier.

This hit us hard. We realized it wasn't just about one man—it was about countless others suffering because vital information was out of reach. We couldn't stand by while lives hung in the balance due to fragmented healthcare systems.

That's why we're here at the Based Africa Buildathon. We've turned our pain into purpose. We're creating a privacy-focused, smart contract based solution that standardizes the sharing of healthcare data across borders and institutions. By harnessing the power of the Base blockchain, we're aiming to empower patients and doctors alike, ensuring that no one else has to endure what my teammate's uncle did.

Africa isn't just a place on a map—it's our home, our community, our family. We're intertwined with its struggles and its victories. Through this project, we're weaving together technology and compassion to create a lifeline that could save countless lives. We're inspired by the hope that from this tragedy, we can build something transformative—a beacon of hope for our homeland and, ultimately, the world.

What challenges are you focusing on?

In our community, we've witnessed the silent struggles of individuals lost in the labyrinth of healthcare—where a mother's medical history is fragmented across clinics, and a father's critical health data is inaccessible when it's needed most. The challenge we're focusing on is the disconnect and scarcity of accessible, patient-controlled healthcare data. It's a world where your own health information is siloed, where patients have little say over their records, and where vital data that could save lives is out of reach.

We believe that this shouldn't be the norm. Imagine a world where every person holds the key to their health data—where sharing your medical history with a new doctor is as simple as a tap, and where you have complete control over who accesses your most personal information. We're addressing the profound need for a privacy-focused system that empowers patients, breaks down data silos, and fosters an environment of data abundance. By leveraging Base, we're building a future where accessible and secure healthcare data isn't just a privilege but a fundamental right, driving positive outcomes for everyone in our community.

How does your submission address this challenge?

In a world where a mother's heartbeat in Nairobi echoes with the same hopes and fears as one in Lagos or Cape Town, access to healthcare should be a bridge, not a barrier. We've witnessed the heartbreaking consequences of fragmented medical data as witnessed in the story of our teammate's uncle lost not to the illness itself, but to the silence between hospitals that couldn't share his records when it mattered most.

This profound loss became our rallying cry. We knew that the difference between life and loss could be as simple as a doctor having timely access to a patient's history. So we asked ourselves: What if we could turn data scarcity into data abundance? What if patients held the keys to their own health information, securely and privately?

Our project answers this call by creating a privacy-focused platform on the Base blockchain that empowers patients to control and share their medical data seamlessly. With a simple tap, vital health records can cross borders and institutions securely, ensuring that wherever a patient goes, their history follows—ready to inform and save lives.

Imagine doctors across Africa accessing the information they need without delay, making informed decisions that could change outcomes. Picture a system where patients are at the center, their privacy respected, their data protected, yet readily available when it counts. By leveraging blockchain technology, we're not just building a database—we're weaving a lifeline that connects patients, doctors, and communities in a secure embrace.

Our submission doesn't just address a technical challenge; it confronts a human one. It's about transforming personal tragedy into collective hope, using innovation to heal and to unite. We envision a future where no one suffers because critical information was out of reach—a future where Base is the foundation of a healthier, more connected Africa.

Challenges we ran into

One of the significant technical challenges we faced was integrating the smart wallet into our platform. Navigating the intricacies of smart wallets and ensuring seamless contract interactions proved more complex than we initially anticipated. We spent considerable time experimenting with different libraries to find one that aligned perfectly with our needs, which was a substantial hurdle in our development process.

What made a profound difference was the exceptional support from the Base Africa team. They generously offered their time, hopping on calls to help us debug and navigate through the issues we encountered. Their insights were invaluable and accelerated our problem-solving significantly. Additionally, the resources available on Coinbase's GitHub, especially the onchain-app-template, were instrumental. This template provided clear guidance and practical examples that we could adapt, making the integration process much more manageable.

Additional Features

During the Buildathon, we made significant enhancements to our healthcare data platform to better serve our community and fully leverage Base's capabilities. We completely redesigned the user interface to create a more intuitive and user-friendly experience for both patients and healthcare providers, ensuring that navigating our app is seamless and accessible.

Recognizing the importance of data privacy and security in healthcare, we developed a robust client-side encryption system. This system encrypts sensitive healthcare records on the user's device before any data is transmitted or stored, giving patients greater control and peace of mind over their personal information.

We also integrated IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) for decentralized data storage and implemented pinning functionality to ensure data persistence and availability. This enhancement not only increases the security and reliability of data storage but also aligns with our vision of transforming data scarcity into data abundance.

On the smart contract side, we optimized our smart contracts to be more gas-efficient, reducing transaction costs for users and making our platform more practical and accessible. We streamlined the contracts by abstracting functionality and reducing their total number, which improves performance and scalability. Additionally, we included comprehensive comments in our code to enhance readability and auditability.