Meet the Founder: Zhinya Hadi
This week’s entrepreneur, Zhinya Hadi, founder of Medchar, tells us about how her startup is solving challenges related to medical data. Have a read to learn more!
Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?
I'm Zhinya Hadi, a 24-year-old graduate from Sulamaniya University - College of Medicine. I'm currently working as a resident doctor. I have always been passionate about business and entrepreneurship. I have previously worked with several medical companies, and finding out about the overlap between technology and medicine has always been my pursuit.
What is your business idea?
I'm working on building an online platform that connects doctors, patients and their medical needs in a patient-centered environment, aiming to return the ownership of medical data back to patients, and building connections and trust between them.
What challenges does your business address?
The challenge of electronic medical data is one of the hot topics worldwide, and the solutions are wide and variable. With Medchar, we are aiming to build a community on a safe and secure platform that can lead patients through their medical journey -- from finding their doctor and saving their medical data, to taking their medications and their follow up. This can be safely practiced as it would not in any way be an online clinic but rather a platform for saving medical data and guidance of patients by the doctors whom they visit in person.
Medchar can be a great solution as it can be used in developing as well as developed countries. It would give patients ownership of their medical data, and doctors will be the supervisor of their patients with one click. This can be a potentially life-saving program as you can always travel with your documents in hand or easily give your doctors all they need to know about your health.
Why have all your social information on Facebook but live with missing pieces of the most important information -- your health data!
In every novelty lies regeneration, and for every need a number of potential solutions lie ahead. The idea of Medchar came to me during my last year of medical school, as I met one of our patients, Ahmed, who was in a very bad state of health, simply because of the lack of knowledge and guidance. He had a brain tumor, and because it took so much time, transferring him between doctors and investigations, by the time we met him, sadly he was comatose. This definitely could have been prevented if his doctors had a tool to communicate with each other and also to keep contact with Ahmed and supervise him to not go to the wrong places and lose time.
Bringing this solution into life has not been without challenges, and so far for Medchar most of the challenges have been in the form of finding a good group of coders and financial support for that, but whenever a need exists, a solution must be the answer as well. If you can simplify and make this solution sustainable and developing, you have the recipe for building a business. This would be challenging of course, but persistence and having the right kind of support is all you need to make it happen.
Why did you join the Five One Labs incubator?
After finishing my medical degree, I was fortunate enough to have some time at hand. Being curious about business and entrepreneurship, this was the best opportunity to explore this field. When I heard about this program, which was a full-time, three-month intensive business and leadership skills training, this was just the right point to start working on an idea that had been whirling in my mind for a long time.
What progress have you made on your business since joining the incubator?
The Five One Labs incubator program is providing the support and community, and Medchar's improvement has been a journey of formulating a business buildup. Our prototype is taking its feedback from users to build the Medchar community.
What advice do you have for someone trying to start their own project/business?
To be passionate about an idea is not enough, but this definitely at times is the only reason to not give up, so choose to work on what you believe is meant to be done. Build your knowledge and research around the potential solutions, and invest in building your network of support and mentorship. You will never know when you could have missed an opportunity.
