When Asmahan Ghaleb started searching for health care for her mother, she quickly got overwhelmed. Ghaleb and her family, who are originally from Yemen but spent most of her childhood in Saudi Arabia, did not have any health insurance when they moved to the United States. Ghaleb took her mother, who has a tumor, to a volunteer clinic in Manchester, where they were able to test her blood pressure and cholesterol, but they weren’t able to provide the serious care she needed.
Ghaleb applied for Medicaid for her mother but was ultimately denied since she had not lived in the U.S. for five years. She then tried applying for insurance through Marketplace but was denied again since she didn’t yet have a Medicaid denial letter, which took another six months to arrive. During that time, Ghaleb’s mother’s condition got worse, and her family was afraid for her. While she ultimately was able to get care for her mother by purchasing a private plan with a high monthly cost through Marketplace, Ghaleb knew there had to be a better way.
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“I felt very stressed and confused,” Ghaleb said. “I didn’t know what I had to do. Where should I go? I even tried to get insurance with my money, but I could not do that. I felt very angry, upset and confused why that happened. Health care should be simple, more clear to patients. I told myself, I will see if I can do something that will be very good for people and help them to get health care, because health care is very important. Suddenly you have something, you are sick, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, so you have to have health care.”
Inspired by her family’s experience, Ghaleb was driven to help others in a similar situation. Earlier this year, she attended a Vibe Coding Workshop at the University of Missouri–St. Louis that introduced students, faculty and staff to emerging technology. Attendees were given about an hour to build their own projects, and Ghaleb, a junior pre-nursing major, teamed up with Etaf Abdallah, a cybersecurity major. Abdallah was immediately drawn to Ghaleb’s story, and together the two developed Health Guide USA, a website designed to help people navigate the complex health care system and understand their options for care.
A few weeks later, Ghaleb further honed her idea for Health Guide USA at PitchFest, an annual competition at UMSL that supports students in presenting new business ideas. Hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, PitchFest allows UMSL students to pitch a unique product for a chance to win funds that will assist them in getting their new business venture off the ground. Ghaleb, who tied for second place and earned $500 to support Health Guide USA, said participating in the event helped her refine her idea and turn it into something real. The judges gave her lots of support and guidance, as well as feedback on her website that helped her improve it.
“I learned a lot from PitchFest,” she said. “They mentioned, ‘You have to have a solution to the problem to show the people with your own hands.’ The biggest thing I learned was presenting my project clear and confidently. Also, connections—connections with people, putting yourself out there to present and talk about what you have. It made me very confident and strong with communication.”
Moving forward, Ghaleb has been applying for more funding, including through Arch Grants and a University of Missouri–Kansas City competition, that will hopefully help her continue developing Health Guide USA by integrating it with government resources, incorporating AI to better guide users and eventually transforming it into a mobile app. Her long-term goal is to have the platform recognized and connected with official health care systems.
In the meantime, she’s keeping busy with her studies at UMSL, juggling a challenging course load including microbiology, chemistry and nutrition, before starting UMSL’s two-year nursing program next fall. Outside of school, she’s continuing to care for her mother as well as her 2-year-old son while also volunteering at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. Her time at Mercy has helped her learn more about all the different departments of the hospital, and she can see herself working in the operating room or as an anesthesiologist assistant after completing her nursing degree.
Wherever she ends up, she hopes to make a significant impact on patient care. She also hopes that Health Guide USA will be impactful for patients and encourage other students to identify a problem that they feel they can help solve and start spreading the word. She’s shared her own family’s struggles navigating the health care system at PitchFest, in Arch Grants’ Startup Competition and on a Fox2 segment, and she feels that speaking up will help lead to real change.
“If they have a real problem, and they don’t know how to solve it, just go ahead and speak up about it,” Ghaleb said. “Find anywhere to speak about it. I want everyone to see this problem. I heard a lot of people have this problem, but nobody is talking about it. Why? If you have a problem, please talk because maybe many people have the same problem. Maybe they haven’t solved it, or maybe they have solved it and they can help you.”
