Projects
Open Source GIS could empower disadvantaged communities through information
The Promotion of Access To Information Act (2000, Amended 2002) aims to make information held by public sector bodies available to the community. This is intended to increase transparency and accountability.

However, in the context of spatial information, there are obstructions to this goal, such as lack of resources: technical (hardware & software), financial and human. Open Source GIS components, including spatial databases, spatial data servers and application toolkits, are being investigated as a means of making relevant, meaningful data available to communities. Mobile devices and the GSM network may also provide a simple, economical way for communities to collect data about themselves, and share this data with relevant decision makers.

Go to the Cell-Life Open GIS project  to see what we are doing in this area.

 
Severe obstacles to data capturing in rural Africa.
Throughout the world there is a need for remote data capturing via technology and there are many devices and systems that address this need. However, our experience shows that the cost and complexity of these systems make them inappropriate for use in the contexts in which we work.

One of the problems with remote data capturing devices is their reliance on infrastructure such as telephone connectivity or continuous access to electricity. If the user is unfamiliar with technology then a complex device can also be a problem and require extensive training.

Another negative factor is the cost of devices and systems. This problem is twofold, first there is the actual cost and who carries it. Secondly, there is the value of the devices and the target they become for theft. We have seen this problem even with mobile phones where we have been unable to use a phone simply because it makes its owner or handler a target for crime.

How do we address these issues? Can we make a cheap device (low in manufacturing costs, with little re-sale value) that is less reliant on existing infrastructure, which is simple to use and does not require extensive training?

These are some of the challenges we are facing and attempting to address in this area.
 
Can technology cut out a few links in the chain of dispensing antiretroviral drugs?
There is a severe lack of trained ARV (Antiretroviral) pharmacists working in the public health sector in South Africa. We also have an exponentially increasing group of patients on life-saving ARV drugs. Pharmacists play a crucial role in the management of HIV patients, since they have contact with patients on a regular basis.

Technology can improve the process by providing an electronic record of when and where patients collected their medication. It can also provide electronic stock records that assist the pharmacist who would have previously used paper-based methods of monitoring.
Technologies such as Store and Forward, and the use of existing cell-phone networks to provide connectivity are important areas in this research.

Go to the iDART (Intelligent Dispensing Of ART) page to see our solution.

 
The stark reality of creating a National Electronic Patient Record.
Problem

Currently South Africa has no national electronic record of patients. Furthermore, the majority of healthcare institutions countrywide have no method of sharing their patient records, electronically or otherwise. This inability to share information is problematic for two reasons. One: records can not be easily accessed when a patient moves between two institutions, and two: it is difficult for government to compile accurate statistics on healthcare in South Africa. The South African government has indicated that by 2010 they intend to have a National Health Information Record (NHIR) in place to collect and share health-related information on a national scale. This would require four technical aspects: network architecture for communication between institutions and external sources of data; a set of communication protocols for transmission and sharing of data; application software for users to use and share data; as well as the maintenance of confidentiality and security of data.

Context
Any distributed network in South Africa will be challenged by lack of infrastructure and differences in organisations. This could include limited or no access to the internet, low bandwidth, computer illiteracy and different healthcare management across the provinces and districts. A further complication is that the capacities, with regards to both infrastructure and personnel, differ greatly.

Because of these factors it may be necessary for the network to cater for different institutions and possibly envelope legacy systems.

Solutions?

There is a great deal of theory for the architecture of a distributed network. Different Computer Science communities advocate different fundamental approaches to sharing data including: distributed databases, peer-to-peer networks, digital libraries, interoperability standards, and web services. The various approaches are appropriate for different sets of user needs and environmental constraints.

In a healthcare network the users specifying these needs will be both those providing healthcare delivery, such as doctors and nurses; as well as those bodies interested in summaries of the data across a set of healthcare institutions. Their various needs will shape how the architecture communicates data.

Outcomes

This project hopes to produce evaluations of the different architectures available for a NHIR in South Africa, based on the needs and capacities of the stakeholders involved. The findings would hopefully prove valuable for any prospective attempts to create a NHIR in South Africa.

Go to the Cell-Life PISYS (Patient Information System) to see our solution.