Pasifika Heartbeat, a health application, is a testament of Rakin Wahed’s dedication.

Mr Wahed, a marketing and tourism student at the University of the South Pacific, had envisioned closing the information gap that existed in the Pacific’s health fraternity.

Mr Wahed said: “My passion to find answers to my questions has led me to create a research institute project, Pasifika Heartbeat which collects data to present information in the simplest way for people to understand, especially in the world of business and environment.”

He said the idea of a health application had crossed his mind in 2015, after being inspired from Bill Gates, an American business magnate.

“In 2019, we assembled a team with a group of medical students and started designing and planning the app and used the funding we had to hire a developer to code the app.”

About The Application
Mr Wahed said the application has vital information on subjects otherwise unaddressed.

“We have gone straight to the point and kept it as short as possible with information doctors often tell patients to practice at home.”

“We have also given information on mental health and sexual health – two topics you often don’t see health articles talking about, especially in the Pacific as it’s a taboo topic.”

“We are living in the greatest mental crisis and we did our best to help drug addicts to seek help, we tell teens to practice safe sex, but what do we actually mean?”

Mr Wahed said along with addressing taboo topics, the application was user-friendly for adults and teenagers, with its colourful interface.

Investment
“We have invested close to $10,000 in the development of this application,” he said.

“Most of the designing was done right here in Fiji amongst the medical students who took out time from their studies to learn this, so we only needed to pay for the development cost of it.”

“We were glad from the sponsorship we have received from Total startupper, Young Entrepreneurship Scheme by the Government and Rubina Medical Clinic who helped to reduce financial costs.”

Future Plans
“We slowly want to expand our operation in the rest of the South Pacific by making our application multi-linguistic so health information could be translated into the Pacific languages.”

“Currently we are also working on a larger e-commerce store which enables women in business to focus on Pacific goods and services through our platform.”

“The platform’s name is Shop Pasifika which comes out in 2022.”

Feedback: shreya.kumar@fijisun.com.fj