IBM helping Zambian government to provide improved access to life saving drugs

IBM helping Zambian government to provide improved access to life saving drugs

IBM is collaborating with the Zambian Ministry of Health to provide citizens with improved access to 200 lifesaving drugs. Supported by the World Bank, the Department for International Development, UNICEF and London Business School, the program will see Zambia’s Medical Stores Limited (MSL) deploying a new medical supply chain pilot project using sophisticated analytics and mobile technologies to better manage medicine inventory and delivery.

The public health sector in Zambia registers 100,000 deaths annually due to preventable and treatable diseases. The goal of the medicine supply chain management project is to save more lives by making medicine widely available when and where it’s needed. IBM’s solution will provide a real-time view of drug usage and stock while analyzing data to identify trends and forecasts to prevent gaps in the medical supply chain.

The public health sector in Zambia registers 100,000 deaths annually due to preventable and treatable diseases.IBM’s SPSS medicine supply forecast model takes into account local conditions such as the rainy season, lead time and differences in each district’s demographics to help MSL determine optimized distribution of drugs across an initial 2190 health centers. Additionally, the IBM Analytics capabilities will be integrated with the IBM MobileFirst application development portfolio, enabling staff at health facilities in three Zambian districts to use mobile devices with barcode scanners to record and transmit stock and utilization details to a central inventory control system. This in turn will ensure continued access to vital medication and enhanced understanding of the usage patterns of vital medication.

Finally, the program will also leverage IBM’s ILOG optimization technology to calculate the ideal composition of drug shipments based on available inventory, resources and historical usage.

IBM is helping the Zambian government deploy medical supply chain pilot project that uses sophisticated analytics and mobile technologies to better manage medicine inventory and delivery.“The Zambian pilot is designed to be sustainable and locally owned,” said Peter Ward, solution manager, IBM. “Our unique analytics technology can help save lives by ensuring access to safe and effective medicines where they are needed most. IBM’s work to create smarter healthcare systems around the world is optimized around the patient, helping countries develop new patient-centric care models, and connecting health information through analytics.”

The 12-month pilot project begins this month and will free up health facility staff from providing detailed paper stock inventories, allowing them to provide meaningful health care.

IBM was recently involved in a similar project to combat the number of deaths from malaria in Tanzania. Called “SMS for Life”, the solution was successfully piloted in 135 villages in remote areas and has now been rolled out across the whole of Tanzania.