Innovative Use of Cellphone Technology for HIV/AIDS Behaviour Change Communications: Three Pilot Projects data sheet 1618 Views
Author:
de Tolly, Katherine and Helen Alexander
Publication Date:
Jan 2009
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
The opportunities in South Africa for using mobile technologies to support initiatives in the HIV/AIDS sector are enormous. A huge number of people have cellphone access, and there are a range of innovative ways in which cellphones can be used to support treatment, disseminate information, provide anonymous counselling, gather data and link patients to services. Cell-Life is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, that seeks to improve the lives of people infected and affected by HIV through the appropriate use of technology. This paper describes three pilot interventions that use cellphones for behaviour change communication, ie that are experimenting with different cellphone technologies to disseminate information, undertaken as part of Cell-Life’s Cellphones4HIV project: ARV adherence SMSs, USSD content delivery and content delivery via MXit. Challenges around measuring impact in behaviour change communications are briefly discussed, and some of Cell-Life’s upcoming initiatives are outlined.
Improving Efficiency of Monitoring Adherence to ARV at PHC Level: Case Study of Introduction of Electronic Technologies in SA data sheet 2166 Views
Author:
Xanthe Wessels; Nicoli Nattrass; Ulrike Rivett
Publication Date:
Oct 2007
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
This paper presents a case study of the efficiency gains resulting from the introduction of electronic technologies to monitor and support adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Guguletu, South Africa. It suggests that the rollout of HAART to such resource-poor communities can be assisted significantly by the introduction of modified cellphones (to provide home based support to people on HAART and improve the management of adherence data) and simple barcoding and scanning equipment (to manage drug supplies). The cellphones have improved the management of information, and simplified the working lives of therapeutic counsellors, thereby enabling them to spend less time on administration and to devote a constant amount of time per patient even though their case loads have risen threefold. It has helped integrate the local-level primary health service provision of HAART with the kind of centralised data capture and analysis that could potentially support a national HAART rollout.
RedChatZone: HIV Counselling via Mobile Instant Messaging Chat data sheet 6924 Views
In South Africa, the number of cellphones greatly outweighs the number of landlines. The National Aids Helpline (NAHL) is free to call from a landline, but regular cellphone rates apply. This makes the NAHL expensive to use from a cellphone, or people have to make use of public phones which are often within earshot of others.
Cell-Life and LifeLine worked together to make HIV counselling more accessible to young South Africans in a medium which is comfortable and familiar to them. Marlon Parker, who started the successful Angel drug counselling service on MXit, was brought in to implement a similar system.
MXit is a very popular downloadable (instant messaging) chat application, where users can add contacts and text/chat to each other at a very low cost. Without getting into a technical description of the system, here is the basic outline of how the service was created:
EMIT: Mobile Monitoring and Evaluation data sheet 4476 Views
System Description
EMIT is an application that allows facilitators to capture field data on cellphones and submit it via GPRS to a centralised database. Surveys are customised and data is monitored, verified and prepared for analysis in real time. Read more here.
From Pilot to National
The pilot was performed with the Community Media Trust (CMT), who used EMIT as a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tool to capture information on their HIV prevention and treatment literacy sessions in clinics, their training programme and open day events held in public spaces in communities where they work. CMT had been struggling with long turnaround times:
Currently NGOs have to rely on sometimes-expensive private-sector suppliers of mobile services such as bulk SMS, USSD, etc. Mobilisr allows organisations to manage their own multi-channel mobile communications.
Mobilisr is an open source mobile messaging platform. It is a Web-based system that allows you to manage communications via mobile phone using a range of mobile technologies: broadcast SMS, interactive keyword SMS, SMS subscribe and unsubscribe, static USSD, and interactive USSD. Future releases will include interactive voice recording (IVR), location-based services, WAP and voicemail push (where a recorded voicemail is sent to people's phones).
Examples of how these can be used include: bulk SMSs sent to patients at an ARV clinic reminding them to take their medication; and interactive USSD used to gather patient feedback on service quality.
Mobilisr allows for tracking of 'campaigns', so you can monitor how many messages have been sent and to whom, which facilitates easier reporting.
In response to the violence against foreigners, the Western Cape Emergency Task Team with the leadership of Peter Benjamin of Cell-Life, has activated a national SMS emergency system for citizens to respond to the violence. The Task Team, a coalition of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and over 20 NGOs, has activated “NO TO XENOPHOBIA” SMS lines across South Africa.