Maya to turn to
What do you do when you have anomalous spotting during pregnancy? Who do you call when you have succumbed to extreme depression but don’t know why? Maya Apa, an online health consultant, provides swift solutions while maintaining
Ivy Russell is an Economics graduate and also has a background in Finance. She has no prior affiliation with the development or health care sectors. “With a long career in banking, the idea of someone like Maya would not cross one’s mind. Vacationing in Dhaka during pregnancy turned out to be a challenge. Finding localized and personalized information online was like searching for a needle in a haystack.” She remarks. “Everything was generic and standardized. That, combined with mother’s cancer diagnosis in 2011, prompted the birth of Maya.”
She stresses. “It is difficult to reach for help in Dhaka. Especially when looking for instantaneous solutions, the health care system here is not ideal. Maya Apa started as a blog in 2011, and its birth is attributed to personal struggles.
“We partnered up with NHS, who provided us with content. The articles were modified and translated to Bangla for use on Maya Apa. The site had a section where visitors could leave questions. People subsequently started shooting questions our way and our inbox exploded. Friends and family who are doctors or experts, helped us tend to those inquiries. This ‘killer feature’ realized the Maya Apa application,” says Ivy Russell.
The application was launched in February 2015. The BRAC Gender and Justice Diversity team financed its development.
Ivy Russell points at the plain white table we are seated at and says, “This is the very table the initial Maya team start. We were so small. We have grown since and now we have 19 full-time employees. On top of that, we have over 100 experts who attend to the questions that keep rolling in.” She smiles to hint at her proud involvement with an ideal cause. “We get around 2,000 questions every day! That’s a colossal number. This is definitely God sent.”
To cue us in on how it works, she states, “To address all the inquiries, we need immense manpower, which is strenuous. We do make use of AI, which helps to reduce a lot of the exertion on the application. As of 2018, Maya has moved on to a sustainable model, where users pay for comprehensive services. For instance, in our psychosocial package, users can have one-on-one sessions with a consultant. Seeking help from therapists is not a norm in Bangladesh, mainly due to its stigmatization. Our users can seek such help, with full anonymity.”
“Maya also tackles real-world problems. The 21st century calls for undivided attention to work and social life. We miss most of our appointments. Maya users can get in touch with their doctors who are available for consultations at convenient hours through an application.”
Ivy then delves into some hurdles they had to overcome. “Bangladeshis see the digital transformation with dubious eyes. We wish to build a stronghold of digitized health care and adjacent services through Maya. We categorize ourselves as a holistic wellness platform, which is a hard concept to grasp. Investors have dubbed us as a category-defying company. Moreover, educating people and getting them to place their trust in Maya is a challenge in itself.”
“It would be wrong if Maya is conceived as a woman-exclusive service portal. We get myriad questions from men. Our current ratio is 3:2, women to men,” She reveals.
“We have also seen a hike in mental health-related questions, which proves that our users are becoming more aware. We now have an understanding that our user base is a lot more educated than when Maya Apa was launched.”
Ivy has a roster experts working on Maya’s behalf. “They aren’t employees per se, but we do try to empower them. We have a significant number of doctors who work on Maya Apa for philanthropic purposes. We even have instances of doctors who left their jobs to raise their kids, they get an opportunity to practice through Maya Apa, thus serving mutual benefits,” she says.
She concludes by emphasizing the need to educate and raise awareness and says, “We have seen a significant rise in user awareness, yet we often receive alarming questions. Like there was a chilling occurrence where a teenage girl ingested 12 misoprostol pills out of sheer panic. Maya will undertake whatever is needed to promote safety, health, conversation, and knowledge.”
