App to improve access and availability of essential medicines in SA

Vodacom Business chief executive, Vuyani Jarana, and health minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi

Designed to monitor stock levels

The Stock Visibility System (SVS) is a mobile platform developed through collaborative efforts between Vodacom and National Department of Health (NDoH).

It allows PHC clinic staff to report and record stock levels and translates this information into various reports, including graphs and heat maps, which are sent via SMS or email to support the proactive management of medicines.

The app also allows for scheduled SMS notifications and automated alerts warning of low-stock level situations, which may result in supply interruptions, thereby providing a means of preventing stockouts from happening in the first place.

Increasing access to medicine

Speaking at the media launch of the SVS mobile application, the minister of health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says: “The Department of Health is using the latest technology to improve healthcare service delivery and patient outcomes in South Africa.

“The Stock Visibility System enables us to increase access to medicine by allowing the Department of Health to monitor the distribution of medicines and take appropriate proactive action anytime, anywhere.”

Pilot project

The NDoH first partnered with the Vodacom in 2013 to develop and deploy SVS to provide critical operational information about the supply chain network in South Africa. Prior to the development of the app, the NDoH relied on manual processes to access medicine availability information pertinent to PHC clinics.

The system was initially piloted at all PHC clinics in KwaZulu-Natal (605 clinics) and Limpopo (478 clinics) in 2014 and 2015 respectively and was used to monitor the availability of all antiretroviral, tuberculosis and vaccine stock items. These pilots aimed to, among other aspects, establish an understanding of the enabling factors that must be addressed for SVS to support medicine replenishment management at PHC level with the ultimate aim of improving medicine availability.

Alleviating stockouts

Over the 2014 and 2015 period, the overall number of stock-outs reported in KwaZulu-Natal decreased by 46%, 49% and 14% for ARVs, TB medicines and vaccines respectively.

Similarly, in Limpopo the overall decrease in the number of reported stock-outs during 2015 for the same medicines was 66%, 49% and 42% respectively.

However in June, an annual survey by Stop Stockouts revealed that a quarter of the 2,804 PHCs polled in 2015 said they had experienced a shortage of drugs in the previous three months, with Mpumalanga and Gauteng have the most stockouts of HIV and TB medicines.

SA’s ART programme

South Africa has the world’s largest antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme with an estimated 31m people receiving treatment as of the end of March 2015.

With the new “Test and Treat” antiretroviral (ARV) treatment strategy announced by Motsoaledi in May this year, the expected increase in patients receiving ARVs will undoubtedly place further pressure on the country’s medicine supply systems to deliver the volumes of treatment needed.