…As IBM marks World Malaria Day with project launch
As the world marks World Malaria Day Sunday, April 25, IBM, a global soft and hard wares manufacturer, has disclosed the results of its project in Tanzania, which used innovative technology to help solve a major humanitarian issue.
It is on record that over a million people die of malaria in Africa yearly, while millions of dollars are spent by governments and aid donors to distribute effective anti-malarial drugs to clinics in remote areas, those efforts are not always successful and malaria still kills mostly pregnant women and young children in Africa, where the majority of the world’s malaria deaths occur.
A text messaging-based pilot project – ‘SMS for Life,’ has helped to save lives from the grasp of malaria over the last several months.
The pilot, launched by IBM, Novartis, and Vodafone, together with Roll Back Malaria and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, tapped into a combination of smart technologies including mobile phones, text-messaging and intuitive web sites. The combined project delivered, tracked, traced and managed the supply of anti-malarial drugs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights of the project include: • The project has helped reduce the chance that health facilities run out of vital malaria treatments three fold. • A half-day training session for health workers in the participating districts was successful in eliciting a high (95 percent) response rate to weekly SMS messages.
The entire project was successfully managed via IBM’s cloud collaboration services, LotusLive. Using LotusLive Engage tools including meetings, files and activities, every member of the global project team was kept up to speed and remained in touch with one another on every detail of the weekly stock data, the updated locations of health facilities, the most current versions of documents and activities critical to the success of the programme.
This pilot project ran successfully from September 2009 to February 2010, covering three districts in Tanzania, Lindi Rural, Kigoma Rural and Ulanga and covered 129 health facilities and 226 villages, representing over one million people.
It could be recalled that such project was also launched in Calabar, the Cross River State capital last year by the company’s foreign volunteers, and the outcome had helped save hundreds of lives in the districts where the pilot was held.
“I would like to connect you with IBM to talk more about the company’s commitment to delivering smarter healthcare services that sense and solve health threats before they materialise, especially in challenging environments,” according to a beneficiary.
By Osa Victor Obayagbona (Friday, 23 April 2010)
As the world marks World Malaria Day Sunday, April 25, IBM, a global soft and hard wares manufacturer, has disclosed the results of its project in Tanzania, which used innovative technology to help solve a major humanitarian issue.
It is on record that over a million people die of malaria in Africa yearly, while millions of dollars are spent by governments and aid donors to distribute effective anti-malarial drugs to clinics in remote areas, those efforts are not always successful and malaria still kills mostly pregnant women and young children in Africa, where the majority of the world’s malaria deaths occur.
A text messaging-based pilot project – ‘SMS for Life,’ has helped to save lives from the grasp of malaria over the last several months.
The pilot, launched by IBM, Novartis, and Vodafone, together with Roll Back Malaria and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, tapped into a combination of smart technologies including mobile phones, text-messaging and intuitive web sites. The combined project delivered, tracked, traced and managed the supply of anti-malarial drugs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights of the project include: • The project has helped reduce the chance that health facilities run out of vital malaria treatments three fold. • A half-day training session for health workers in the participating districts was successful in eliciting a high (95 percent) response rate to weekly SMS messages.
The entire project was successfully managed via IBM’s cloud collaboration services, LotusLive. Using LotusLive Engage tools including meetings, files and activities, every member of the global project team was kept up to speed and remained in touch with one another on every detail of the weekly stock data, the updated locations of health facilities, the most current versions of documents and activities critical to the success of the programme.
It could be recalled that such project was also launched in Calabar, the Cross River State capital last year by the company’s foreign volunteers, and the outcome had helped save hundreds of lives in the districts where the pilot was held.
“I would like to connect you with IBM to talk more about the company’s commitment to delivering smarter healthcare services that sense and solve health threats before they materialise, especially in challenging environments,” according to a beneficiary.
By Osa Victor Obayagbona (Friday, 23 April 2010)
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