MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

TrackMed system

One-line solution summary.

Trackmed system uses QR codes and a mobile phone app to solve the problem of poor traceability and accountability in medical logistics.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

When medicines reach the hospital store they have to be served to the different pharmacies located at the hospital for the patients to take according to their dosage and prescription, usually the process of dispensing these medicines to the patients is too manual and there's room for much error while entering the data into the Rxsolution off the paper written dosage. Trackmed addresses this problem by having a QR code sticker printer positioned at the hospital drug store where the medicine ordered by a particular pharmacy to the store through the Rxsolution is captured by number and name of medicine then generated into a QR code that is attached to the boxes going to the pharmacy, the patients are also made for special cards that have their UgandaEMR number turned into a QR code so that when dispensing the medicines the dispensing officer only needs to scan the QR code on patients card and the one on the box that contains the medicine from the store and the taken medicine is automacally deducted from the pharmacy stock without manually filling in any forms.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

Currently, there is much difficulty faced in the health supply chain of Uganda when tracking and tracing medicines downstream; that is from the store at the health center to the end patient. This has heavily impacted the delivery of free medicines to the patients and as a result has lowered the health standards of Ugandans. Currently, there is not enough reliable data about medicines downstream in the supply chain due to theft and poorly monitored delivery leading to difficulty in data driven decision making by stakeholders.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Trackmed system solution serves the people of Uganda that get free essential medicines through the government health centers.

People who get medicine from government health centers face a problem of medicine stock outs which comes as a result poor traceability and theft of medical supplies.

The solution is also going to benefit National Medical Stores (NMS) as it will allow them make data driven decisions on quantities and type of medicine to be supplied at particular health centers which will come along as data from medicine consumption at each health facility through the Trackmed system dash board.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

Trackmed system is a idea that was crafted during the SSCS challenge organised in Uganda by USAID and MSH to strengthen the medical supply chain of Uganda and Trackmed system came up as winners.

During the bootcamp of the competition we got to meet with subject matter experts and they described the problem and why it needs to be solved.

Trackmed system has been fine tuned by Gates and Bytes software developers with a team from Management Sciences for Health Uganda who are the subject matter experts.

Trackmed developers have also visited district health centers and got to see how the medical supply chain works and its flaws.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

Our solution's stage of development:

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

The development team carried out visits to government health facilities like Mulago hospital and got to see the electronic systems used and their weaknesses.

Gates and Bytes LTD got grant funding from USAID and we started developing the software and we shall be done with an MVP by end of June 2022.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Buwate, Wakiso, Uganda

Team Lead:

JOEL STEVEN SSEKYEWA is the team lead and CEO Gates and Bytes LTD

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the link(s) here:

no link

If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:

https://youtu.be/FPkVsHJyupM

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new use of an existing technology (e.g. application to a new problem or in a new location)

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

The TrackMed system addresses the challenge above by using quick response codes, smart-phones and an internet connection to provide real time data downstream.

QR code stickers are attached on packages at the store requested by the pharmacy through RX solution. The QR code contains information about the drugs in the particular request. The packages are arranged on shelves in the pharmacy. Unique cards also having a quick response code are issued to the patients using data from Uganda EMR System. A doctor prescribes medicine to a patient and the prescription is logged into RX solution. A patient goes to the pharmacy with their plastic card and the prescription paper having the prescription and their patient number. A dispensary officer scans their card and information about their prescription pops up on a screen. The pharmacist picks the right medicine and scans the package they removed it from. This updates the stock status in RX solution. In the event that a patient misplaces their QR code card, the dispensary officer asks for their patient number and it’s entered into the app instead of scanning their card; other current health facility procedures remain unchanged. This allows traceability of medicines downstream in the supply chain in real time.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Big Data
Software and Mobile Applications

In which countries do you currently operate?

Uganda

How many people does your solution currently serve, and how many do you plan to serve in the next year? If you haven’t yet launched your solution, tell us how many people you plan to serve in the next year.

The company intends to pilot the project at about five health centers with the Makerere Joint AIDS Program clinic being a major center for testing because there is an uninterruptible power supply and internet access. This will allow for efficient testing and refining of the solution to ensure project success.

For testing we are going to work with around 16,000 patients but as we scale we can approximate to work with around 70,000 patients in 1 years.

What are your impact goals for the next year, and how will you achieve them?

To integrate with the current systems running in the supply chain

The TrackMed system project aims at integrating with already existing systems at health centers. The two major systems in context are the RxSolution and the Electronic Medical Records {EMR} that medical personnel are used to working

To improve efficiency in the dispensing process at the various health centers:

The TrackMed system project will automate a variety of tasks and simplify other tasks involved in the process of dispensing drugs to patients. A mobile application that uses a scanning mechanism will be developed to simplify dispensing and taking records at that level.

To ensure drug traceability from the health facility store to the end patients:

The TrackMed system project also aims at improving visibility in the health supply chain and provide real time data on drug delivery from the health facility store to the patient. This will be achieved through addition of QR codes and routine scanning processes to the current health supply chain routine. Information will be relayed via networks both local and online and this will strengthen the supply chain.

The TrackMed system project will be developed with a web dashboard for viewing different statistics about drug consumption.

The dashboard shall be updated in real time and will effectively supplement the auditing process that explicitly takes a longer time to provide required statistics.

How are you measuring your progress or planning to measure your progress toward your impact goals?

WE ARE MEASURING PROGRESS BY SETTING WEEKLY DELIVERABLES TO BE EXECUTED BY THE DEVELOPING TEAM.

Web and mobile system authentication module ~ 2 weeks
Collection of necessary metadata ~ 1 week
Integration with the Electronic Medical Records system ~ 3 weeks
Web module to generate patient QR codes ~ 2 weeks
Printing Patient QR Code Cards ~ 2 weeks
Integration with the RxSolution system for drug data collection ~ 3 weeks
Web module to generate QR codes for stickers; at health facilities ~ 2 weeks
Integration with the RxSolution system at drug dispensing ~ 3 weeks
Mobile app module to scan patient cards and relay drug dispatch data ~ 3 weeks
Mobile application completion ~ 3 weeks
Web system dashboard ~ 2 weeks
Web deployment to production server ~ 1 week
Mobile app publishing to app stores~ 1 week
Training of system users and publishing system user manuals ~ 2 week

System piloting and deployment ~ 7 weeks:

The TrackMed system will be tested in chosen medical centers and the solution further refined to work in real life situations. Features will be added to the system and unnecessary features removed. A report will be made by the developers and concerned authorities about system performance. A successful deployment will result into system deployment at various health centers and possible scaling later to drug production level.

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year?

BARRIERS:

The TrackMed system project will depend on a wireless LAN access of the health facility in order to get data and information about drugs from the RxSolution system that is already in use, But most health facilities have wired LANs. The TrackMed system will integrate with this system in the back end to access this data. This will be done by the developers.
The TrackMed mobile app will depend on access to the camera and storage features of the smartphones used to scan all quick response codes generated by the TrackMed system. This permission is to be granted by the owners of the smartphones hence Trackmed system will also require smart phones with good cameras and strong battery that can last a day for testing purposes.
The successful implementation of the project will also depend on proper funding from the donors and support from concerned authorities in cases where vigorous testing and refining of the solution shall be required. This close collaboration should produce a viable product.

About Your Team

Your Business Model & Resources