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Cellphones join battle against HIV/AIDS
Tamar Kahn, republished courtesy of Business Day
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Sisiter Lulu Mtwisha used to laboriously write by hand the details of every home visit made by her counsellors to HIV/AIDS patients cared for by the Hannan Crusaid treatment centre in Cape Town's Guguletu township.
It was a time-consuming process that grew worse as the clinic's caseload increased.
Now, thanks to an innovative application of cellphone technology, the clinic is on the verge of becoming a paperless operation.
A Cape-based project called Cell-Life has developed software and data management systems that enable the centre's health workers to monitor patients who are on AIDS drugs and pick up problems before they become life-threatening.
Hannan Crusaid's 40 counsellors have been trained to use cellphones equipped with a special menu that allows them to capture data about patients' symptoms and pill taking as well as other factors that might affect their health - such as lack of money to pay for transport to the clinic, or a shortage of food.
The information is relayed instantly over Vodacom's GSM network to a central database, which can be accessed by clinic staff over a secure connection.
In addition to their scheduled visits, counsellors arrive unannounced once every four months to do a pill count. The information they collect is compared with clinic data on the number of pills issued to patients, and enables staff to spot looming trouble.
The software was developed by engineering students at UCT and Cape Technikon, with funding from Vodacom and the National Research Foundation.
The package can only be used on Vodacom's cellular network, but talks are under way with MTN and Cell-C.
Cell-Life is also being used to monitor close to 500 patients in KwaZulu-Natal, and Rivett is investigating the prospect of sites in other provinces. |
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