We are raising £100,000 to enable us to gather evidence on the feasibility of a Public Private partnership between the government, pharmaceutical companies and the business sector in ensuring an accessible, reliable and quality drug supply for people with chronic illnesses (HIV, Diabetes, Asthma etc) on the move. We want to piggyback on the South African governmental plans of ensuring that each citizen has an electronic ID linked to their health record. By swiping the card, the medicine vending machine should then dispense the treatment the person is on.
We hope to solve the problem of people disengaging from treatment while on the move. We want to enable people to replenish their medicine supplies wherever they may be.
Evidence generated will be used to engage with other governments, pharmaceutical companies and business people in Sub- Saharan Africa to follow suit.
We are a team of passionate researchers who believe that the responsibility of the researcher does not end with publishing of scientific results, but where possible should contribute to policy and ultimately improve practice.
My story
I come from a Nursing background. I joined nursing because of a desire to relieve pain and suffering. I went on to do a Masters degree in Public Health because Public Health allows me not only to assist the individual in-front of me but also allows me to contribute to the promotion and protection of health of communities and populations through research.
My Master thesis “The challenges experienced by non-governmental organisations with regard to the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy in KwaZulu-Natal” gave me the initial glimpse into the challenges in antiretroviral therapy as well as the impetus to find solutions to address these challenges.
Our manuscript under review, “Who is a loss to follow up in ART in rural KwaZulu-Natal and why” (currently under review at Maternal and Child Health Journal MACI), demonstrated that migration is one of the factors leading to disengagement from treatment. In our quest to addressing this challenge, 24/7 access using conveniently placed medicine vending machines was conceived.
Convenient access of medication 24/7 using an electronic ID card
In Sub-Saharan Africa people are migrating for different reasons, from economic factors to fleeing war. Inside South Africa people are also migrating for different reasons, including for work.
3 million people in South Africa are on HIV/AIDS treatment. With this innovation we have a chance to accord those migrating a chance to continue taking their treatment
If we raise the minimum target we will be able to initiate a round table discussion with all key stakeholders and get buy in, input and refine the plan for a pilot study
We will be able to test the feasibility of medicine vending/dispensing machines in The South African context and assess effectiveness in keeping mobile populations on treatment.
We will be able to carry out a Multi-country pilot study in 3 countries in Southern Africa bearing in mind the different contexts
Costs
Watch this space; a news item will be posted soon on: http://www.ispm.unibe.ch/
You don’t need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence or on your blog. In fact, share it with everyone you know as we think it’s a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely we are to make this work out brilliantly. Last but not least, we know we said you don’t need to give money to help us, but we’d love it if you did! Please sponsor us and help make this happen.