South African medical students from KwaZulu-Natal at the University of KZN have have presented to the World Health Organisation, a cellphone application designed to help with ensuring patients take pills regularly.
“They have designed an innovative approach using cellphone based technology to send automated alerts/reminders via text messages (SMS) to patients to take their medication on time.”
“To date there has been no technological intervention that specifically addresses poor patient compliance to anti-microbials.”
The two students, Kapil Narain and Mohamed Hoosen Suleman, were selected as some of the 10 finalists in an international competition.
A total of 163 proposals from 40 countries had been submitted to the WHO and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The competition was looking for solutions to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
This is the process whereby “as bacteria develop the ability to stop the drugs used to treat them, we risk reverting back to a time when simple infections might become untreatable”, explained the university.
“By 2050, 10 million lives could be lost due to the growing worldwide threat of AMR.”
