As the first South African network to offer mobile health solutions, Vodacom Business is aiming to provide more affordable healthcare through mobile phones, apps and devices – all powered by a fixed mobile convergence. A number of partnerships have been created with various healthcare solution providers to enable screening, monitoring and reporting using Connected Health Devices. As a result, Vodacom Business’ investment in health solutions will see mobile health workers, schools, clinics and other facilities around the country receiving better access to healthcare services including disease screening and identification, laboratory testing, logistics and cold chain management, especially at the Primary Care Level of service delivery. Below are just two successful integrations of mobile healthcare and Vodacom’s connected solutions. 

The Vodacom Stock Visibility Solution (SVS)

Vodacom’s Stock Visibility solution enables dispensaries, clinics and pharmacies to monitor and capture stock levels on a daily basis. Vodacom designed and implemented the network agnostic store and forward system that provides real-time or near real time reporting of stocks using inter alia, the bar code scanning capability in a mobile phone. Without real-time visibility of the supply chain, it is almost impossible to ensure the right drugs are available where they are needed most.

Users are sent a system generated auto reminder to take stock of their supplies and capture the data into the Application which is updated in real-time and logged on a web-based geo-mapped dashboard which can be accessed by authorised users within the Logistics Supply Chain. This enables informed policy and decision-making but also:

Benefits

• Reduced stock-outs and earlier alerts of low stock.
• Greater access to medicine
• Improved data accuracy and visibility

South African National Blood Service

Saving lives is at the core of the South African National Blood Service and technology to improve the monitoring of fridges is ensuring fewer lives are lost. Vodacom Business, in partnership with Mezzanine, sponsored the creation of unique technology to monitor temperatures of emergency fridges via the Vodacom network. The Fridge Temperature Monitoring (M2M) solution uses the network for notification of any out-of-range temperatures.

The temperatures are monitored by the staff in the ten blood banks responsible for these hospitals by simply logging onto the system at each blood bank. The system enable SANBS staff to remotely monitor the temperatures of the emergency fridges 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each fridge is equipped with a control unit that has an audio alarm that sounds when the temperature goes out of range. Immediate action can be taken by contacting the hospital to resolve any problems to prevent any loss of emergency blood. Currently there are 41 devises in private and provincial hospitals operating in the emergency fridges in Gauteng, spreading from Midstream in the North to Tembisa (East), Alberton (South) and Carletonville (West). In the coming year it will expand across South Africa to 410 sites.

Benefits

• Electronic monitoring ensures staff can check the temperature remotely at hospitals anywhere in South Africa.
• Early warning systems ensure action can be taken immediately when temperatures are out of range.
• SANBS can actively monitor temperatures of the emergency blood 24/7, resulting in increased quality of the blood supply, and that the integrity of the product during storage at hospitals.
• The system enables staff to log in to the SANBS intranet, access the devices via the network and check temperatures at any time.

The future of healthcare

Vodacom's Next Generation Health aimes to improve the delivery of healthcare by reducing costs and ensuring that citizens receive the best care available. With easy to use, cost-effective solutions ready to be rolled out, your business is guaranteed to see the benefits immediately.