SMS for life: le téléphone mobile au service de la santéNews:
Texting in Tanzania helps save lives
Olympia Wereko Brobby and Winfred Mwafongo with Health workers in Kigoma
Novartis, IBM and Vodafone, under the umbrella of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, have launched a pilot programme using texts to monitor stock of anti-malarial drugs in remote areas of Tanzania.
SMS for Life uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS messages and websites to monitor and restock much needed anti-malarial drugs. Automated reminder texts are sent weekly to healthcare staff in Tanzanian facilities who count stock. They send a reply text, which is stored on a website and Google Maps, which evaluates stock levels and sends alerts to stores on stock-outs. This monitoring system has also helped staff control malaria outbreaks.
The five-month pilot, spanning 135 villages and 155 public health facilities has already reaped results. According to Silvio Gabriel, executive vice-president and head of malaria initiatives at Novartis, the number of health facilities with stock-outs in one district was reduced by over 75% in the first three weeks alone. The pilot will be completed shortly, when all partners will evaluate the results, record best practices and determine next steps.
The programme demonstrates not only how something as everyday (and often annoying) as texts can help save lives, but also the value of public-private partnerships. "No single player can be successful alone," Gabriel says. "We’ve learned that in order to make a meaningful and sustainable impact, governments, international institutions, industry, and civil society must join forces."