AOWA · Anesthesia knowledge for West Africa
Today's AI was trained on hospitals with everything. We're mapping what anesthesia teams in Ghana actually have, so tomorrow's tools give answers that fit the room you work in.
Ask an AI tool or an international guideline about anesthesia and it will assume steady oxygen, full monitoring, an intensive care unit, blood on demand and a specialist on site. Many hospitals work without some of these every day. The people who know what each hospital really has are the people doing the work, and that knowledge has never been written down in a form a machine can learn from or a person can check.
Illustration of where this is going. The assistant is not built yet.
Built on assumptions
Sounds right. Is it true here? No way to check.
Built on reality
Pulse oximeter: reported available, often with probe shortages. Source: clinician survey.
Capnography: we don't know yet. Not enough evidence.
ICU backup: not observed at this level. Source: expert interview.
Every answer shows its source. Unknowns are flagged, never guessed.
What teaching, regional and district hospitals have for anesthesia: staff, equipment, monitoring, medicines, blood and services. Every fact sourced. Every gap counted.
A clear picture of what each hospital level has and lacks, so funders and planners put resources where they're missing.
AI that answers only from checked facts, cites every one, and says 'we don't know' when the map does. It informs; clinicians decide.
Most of the map is still blank. We know almost nothing yet about regional hospitals, or about monitoring equipment at any level. No dataset can fill that in. You can. Fifteen minutes of what you know, including 'I don't know', becomes part of the foundation every future tool is built on.
“A small map nobody can fault beats a big one nobody can check.”
Which anesthesia and pain medicines on Ghana's Essential Medicines List are usually in stock. About 10 minutes.
Staffing, monitoring, oxygen, equipment, blood, referral and records. About 15 to 20 minutes.
Answer for the hospital level you know best from your own work. You can fill in a survey again for a second level.
AOWA is a research project by Efeeo Impact. Questions: contact@efeeo.com