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Thesis: Remote HIV/AIDS Patient Monitoring Tool Using 3G/GPRS Packet-Switched Mobile Technology |
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Wednesday, 30 November 2005 |
Author: R. Fynn
Date: 2005
Publication Type: Undergraduate thesis (Bsc Electrical Engineering)
South Africa is currently putting strategies in place to manage one of the
biggest HIV/AIDS Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) roll-outs in the world. Focus
lies not only on intensified training of medical staff, but also on using
resources in a more effective way to cope with the additional demands on the
health system. Innovative solutions, such as the use of mobile phones to
monitor patients at various geographical locations, have allowed for the
creation of virtual infrastructures and support for the limited medical staff
and resources.
South Africa has a mobile phone penetration rate of 33% and quality GSM
networks that give 90% of the population access to mobile communication. In
2002, Cell-Life developed a WIG/SMS based Cellphone Data Capture Tool (CDCT)
which has been successfully implemented and is being used by medical staff to
obtain drug adherence, symptoms and TB information. Newer mobile technologies
have since become available in South Africa, and this offers greater scope for
increased usability, multilingual support, performance, security, and cost-effectiveness.
This paper is an investigation into a Java (J2ME) adaptation of the current
CDCT to assess the possibilities of a scalable national implementation.
The system was developed based on human-computer interaction (HCI) theory,
and the specific South African context of 11 official languages and different
cultural backgrounds formed a fundamental objective of this research.
The developed prototype uses packet-switched mobile technologies such as
GPRS, EDGE or 3G to implement end-to-end secure encrypted communication.
Research into cost-effectiveness showed that although 3G enabled mobile handsets
are still too expensive in a South African setting, GPRS and Java enabled handset
prices form a viable option. Immediate cost savings of 65% were observed and future
savings due to economies of scale are in the region of 85% per transaction.
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RESEARCH & INNOVATION