“SMS for Life” roll-out in Zambia
NOVARTIS SOCIAL BUSINESS
Assignment for Novartis to cover the SMS for Life roll-out in Zambia.
Electronic tracking of medicines addressing key operational challenges at peripheral health facilities.
Applied ‘SMS for Life’ tablet based inventory reporting helps to prevent stockout on medicine to treat communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Nurse-midwife Zelipe Mwale from Muwanguni Rural Health Centre counseling a mother whose newborn suffer from malaria.
After registration, patients move into a basic area. Here, nurses will collect and patients data.
Midwife Zelipe refers to her tablet for up-to-date drug inventory tracking on anti-malaria treatments.
Midwife Zelipe refers to her tablet for up-to-date drug inventory tracking on anti-malaria treatments.
SMS for Life 2.0 app ensures fast and accurate data submission to regional and national health authorities to provide faster drug supply
Just one of many motivated and hardworking volunteer of community health workers at the Rural Health Centre to assist the nurse and to ensure logistics.
A health technician at the Rural Health Centre (RHC) inspects temperature controlled medicine to ensure quality, stock and expire date.
Another community health worker volunteers his time filing patients’ records.
Reporting data through old fashioned reporting methods. Significant staff time is usually wasted on inventory management and delayed response time to regional and national management level to provide faster drug supply.
A community health worker volunteers her time to provide administrative services to the community. Here she is registering a child to receive services.
Many women in rural areas travel to a hospital or RHC after their labor has begun.
Access to adequate healthcare that otherwise meant walking over 16km for the nearest care (three hours for a healthy adult).
Currently, at eight months pregnant, women begin their walking journey to the nearest health facility as the Rural Health Centre Muwanguni to stay there until they deliver their baby.
At the family planning room; a sharp contrast to the modern, contemporary rooms in the western world. This family planning room is equipped with any kind of ‘Family Planning’ supplies and full of educational wall posters to inform, bring awareness and display all sort of health related statistics
A mother’s shelter with 12 beds. Many women in rural areas travel to a hospital or RHC after their labor has begun.
Expectant mothers come to Mutiti Rural Health Centre and stay for the last month of their pregnancy. They are then able to give birth in a proper environment with qualified medical personnel attending with less stress.
This is where many of women who will deliver their babies, a delivery room with just two beds; a sharp contrast to the sterile, contemporary rooms in the western world. The toilet in the back can’t be used as there was no money to attach it to water and proper sanitation. This raises another severe issue as inadequate water and sanitation during childbirth are likely to lead to poor maternal and newborn outcomes.
After a long hardworking day, midwife Zelipe with her daughter at her home.
THE STORY.
I visited Zambia on an assignment for Novartis Social Business in December 2017 to work on a story about on roll-out of 'SMS for Life'.
The program aims to eliminate stock-outs of essential medicines through simple, affordable and widely available technologies. During my assignment in Zambia I've covered the daily life of a few healthcare workers from peripheral health facilities incl. a prison health centre situated outside the correctional facility but within walking distance.
When inefficient supply chain management results in stockouts of essential medicines at health facilities, it becomes complicated to treat and manage communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Inventory stock management by health workers are an important, but a time consuming task to ensure accurate and sufficient drug supply in rural areas.
Electronic tracking of medicines addressing key operational challenges at peripheral health facilities.
Applied ‘SMS for Life’ tablet based inventory reporting helps to close potential stock gaps by rapid distribution of disease surveillance information to district, regional, and national level management to support better disease management.
Poor and rural communities that depend on these facilities for health services and medicines are most affected. Stockouts also mean that an already strained health workforce spends time rationing or tracking drugs instead of caring for patients.
Nurse-midwife Zelipe who runs the Rural Health Centre in the Mansa District, Luapula Provence. Together with other health care volunteers Zelipe serves a catchment population of up to 10,000 people
Services offered in this RHC include HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT), Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT), emergency obstetric care (EMOC), TB diagnosis and delivery services.
The project SMS for Life", an initiative of Novartis Social Business, has been awarded during the 3rd Commonwealth Digital Health Conference in Srilanka!
The initiative received the Commonwealth Digital Health Award 2018 for the category Emergency Informatics. What a fabulous recognition and a great motivation to continue the journey to improve access to medicines for low and middle income countries.
Proud that my images made it into this trailer explaining the power of this technology:
Watch the #youtube trailer SMS for Life - bringing digital health solutions to rural communities.
For collaborations, assignments, editorials or other questions, feel free to contact me directly.