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The Botswana Project: Using Cell Phones to Combat HIV/AIDS



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 17th, 2009, 07:24 PM posted to soc.culture.african,soc.culture.south-africa,rec.travel.africa,misc.health.aids
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Default The Botswana Project: Using Cell Phones to Combat HIV/AIDS

The Basics:

The Botswana Project is a system designed to assist HIV positive youth
with taking their antiretroviral medication and to strengthen the
doctor-patient relationship by increasing communication. Our system
also provides incentives and rewards for patients who communicate
well. We are working with the Botswana Ministry of Health, the
University of Botswana, Mascom (the biggest network service provider
in Botswana), the Botswana Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and
doctors at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone.

We are looking for some additional funds to purchase cell phones for
patients that dont already have them. We have the ability to get cell
phones at a discount in a bulk package from Nokia. The SMS service we
provide will be available to 125,000 HIV positive patients throughout
the country, 10% of which are estimated to not have their own phones.
We are looking to raise $7,500 in order to purchase about 12,500 cell
phones for the scale up of our project. Any donation no matter how
small will help make a difference. If you would like to know more
about the project please read over the details below.

The Details:

The Problem:
Botswana is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa most severely
impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the estimated prevalence of HIV in
Botswana’s population ages 14-49 is listed as 33%. The government of
Botswana has responded to these devastating statistics by making
treatment for HIV/AIDS available to all citizens who qualify. Although
HIV is impossible to cure antiretroviral drugs (known as ARVs) enable
patients to live longer and healthier lives. However in order for
patients to receive these benefits and to avoid the evolution of drug
resistance they must have strict adherence to their medication.
Adherence is defined as following a doctors exact directions. Patients
are told that they must take their medication at the same time every
day for the rest of their lives. In addition some patients have to
take medication for oppurtunistic infections, for example TB, which
can make the number of pills a person has to take in one day very
high.

In a study in Botswana conducted in 2006 researchers found that the
main reason for not taking medication that was provided was that
people forgot. In fact in other studies conducted in most countries
(including the United States) forgetfulness is the number one reason
for missing a dosage of medication when cost of drugs are not an
issue.To further complicate the situation the Batswana people are
known for their politeness and many doctors practicing in clinics have
expressed frustration that this politeness leads to patients not
asking questions when they do not understand something and not
confiding in the doctors when they are having a problem with their
medication such as side effects.

One Solution:
Our project intends to address the issue of adherence and the issue of
increasing communication between doctors and patients. Our concept is
relatively simple, a computer server sends out text messages to
patient’s cell phones to remind them to take their individual daily
pills, refill their prescriptions and attend their doctor
appointments. Patients respond to the individual pill reminders to
either confirm that they have taken their medication or if they were
unable to take it then they identify the reason they did not. Patients
who respond to their texts 95% or more of the time will be awarded a
small prize every month (such as airtime) and entered into monthly
drawings to win larger prizes such as new cell phones or gift
certificates.. Patients are encouraged and rewarded for their honesty
(we will correlate their responses with their monthly viral loads to
get an over all sense of how much patients tell the truth). Patient
privacy in this project is of the utmost importance because of the
stigma against HIV-positive individuals that is often rampant in parts
of Southern Africa. The website will be password encrypted and all
patients will be referred to by a numerical ID in order to protect
their identity. Patients will also have the option to program their
own reminder texts when they register for the service. Instead of a
standard reminder a patient could select to have a reminder that says
a phrase of their choice if they are afraid of someone else to which
they have not disclosed their status gaining access to their cell
phone. The standard reminder messages themselves will be varied and
will include wise quotes, facts, horoscopes and jokes to make them
more enjoyable for patients to read.

Our system records and stores all the data. This way doctors can see
the exact reasons why patients are missing their medication and also
see exactly how much medication is being missed. This will make
interference with a patient having problems with their medication not
only more timely but more specific to a patient’s particular problems.
Patients can text into the server number to report problems or doubts
about taking their medication and we have a 24 hour helpline that
patients can call for free at any time.

In Botswana cell phones are very widespread and network coverage is
very reliable at 85% and growing rapidly, even expanding into
Botswana’s infamous desert the Khalahari. However, for those patients
that do not have cell phones we are planning to provide them free of
cost. Another aspect of the cell phone culture in Botswana that makes
this system feasible is that everything is prepaid. This means that
patients will not have to worry about paying their monthly cell phone
bill to keep their number working. One never has to pay to receive and
incoming text or call.We plan to work closely with both doctors and
patients to tailor this system exactly to suit their needs so that it
is as beneficial to them as possible.

Our Project Team:
This project targets HIV-positive young people. These are the people
identified to have by far the biggest problems with adherence and
doctor communication. One of the real strengths behind this project is
that most of the people working on it are young themselves. Our
project is co-headed by Katy Digovich, age 24, a American who recently
graduated from Princeton University, majored in Biology and was
awarded a Compton Mentor Fellowship which was used to fund the start
up of this project. Our other project co-head is Lesedi Bewlay, age
25, a Motswana who graduated from Indiana University and majored in
Computer Science.In fact all of the people designing and implementing
this project, besides the project advisors, are under the age of 26.
The project team is made up of five Americans and five Batswana. Most
of us are recent graduates and the rest of us are about a year out of
college. Our majors include: biology, public health, sociology,
computer science, engineering and business marketing. Currently
everyone is working for free. Our project advisors, although not under
26 years of age, are all very experienced in their fields. They a

-Dr Harriet Okatch: A Motswana Professor at the University of Botswana
who works on drug resistant HIV.
-Dr. Marc Fiuczynski: A Professor of Computer Science at Princeton
University whose research span several areas of communication
including cell phones and SMS.
-Dr. Ava Avalos: A doctor at Princess Marina Hospital who works with
HIV-positive patients in the failure clinic at the IDCC. She is also a
Ministry of Health official.
-Dr. Mosupele Mosupele: A Motswana doctor that works at Princess
Marina with the title of Adherence Coordinator.
-Dr. David Green: A South African doctor who independently came up
with a project very similar to ours. It is a compliance service for TB
positive patients that utilizes SMS technology.
-Dr. Diane Dickenson: A doctor at Independence Surgery in Gaborone who
sends her patients text message reminders. She is head of the
Clinicians Society in Botswana.

Our Last Words
We realize that since the global financial crisis money has become
tighter for every family and there are many other causes that you
could donate to if you are considering donating at all. However, your
donation to this project will not only help people living with HIV
enroll in a service that can allow them to be able to relax and forget
and complain and have someone there to remind them and to listen. Your
donation will also inspire us, all the young people working on this
project, and show us that when we forgo the usual route of graduate
school or corporate America right after college and instead give up
making money for awhile to come together from different nationalities
to try and help other people who are in need, that the world conspires
to help us. And belief in the goodness and the charity of others no
matter how hard their current circumstances is what will drive us to
keep doing projects like this one and to encourage other young people
to follow in our footsteps.

https://www.fundable.com/groupaction...-17.7686647675
  #2  
Old January 20th, 2009, 08:37 AM posted to rec.travel.africa
Marc Lurie[_1_]
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Posts: 209
Default The Botswana Project: Using Cell Phones to Combat HIV/AIDS

$1.66 per cellphone?


On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:24:19 -0800 (PST), wrote:
We are looking to raise $7,500 in order to purchase about 12,500 cell
phones for the scale up of our project.

  #3  
Old January 20th, 2009, 12:06 PM posted to rec.travel.africa
Marc Lurie[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 209
Default The Botswana Project: Using Cell Phones to Combat HIV/AIDS

Sorry, my bad. That's $0.60c per cellphone!!!

How about I give you $15,000, you buy 25,000 cell phones, and give me
half of them?

Sounds like an excellent deal.

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:37:39 +0200, Marc Lurie
wrote:

$1.66 per cellphone?


On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:24:19 -0800 (PST), wrote:
We are looking to raise $7,500 in order to purchase about 12,500 cell
phones for the scale up of our project.

 




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