In our quest for best practice examples of digital health solutions implemented at scale, with government partnership, we had the pleasure of working with Mezzanine to learn about the journey of their Stock Visibility Solution (SVS). In South Africa, SVS is implemented across eight out of nine provinces and managed and financed by the National Department of Health. But this certainly didn’t happen overnight. It took great vision and a remarkable team to achieve the success Mezzanine’s SVS solution has to date… and they won’t stop here.
The need
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), inefficient supply chain management can lead to stockouts of medicine at public health facilities, complicating the treatment and management of a range of diseases. Poor and rural communities that depend on these facilities for health services and medicines are most affected. Patients must often make repeated costly trips to health facilities to fill their prescriptions, and when there are stockouts patients default on treatment. Given the high health burden of communicable diseases in SSA, such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, stockouts are a serious challenge in the region. Mobile technology presents an opportunity to address this challenge by enabling access to higher quality healthcare services and reducing the cost of healthcare delivery for governments and private providers.
The solution
Mezzanine’s Stock Visibility Solution (SVS) enables health facilities to transition from inefficient paper-based stock reporting processes to digital data collection and real-time reporting. SVS reduces stockouts and expands public access to essential medicines, such as antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, TB medications, and vaccines. Since its launch in South Africa in 2014, SVS has been implemented in over 3,500 health facilities in South Africa, Zambia, and Nigeria. As of June 2018, over 11 million stock level reports have been submitted through SVS.
The impact
The total number of stockouts reported in South African provinces that have adopted the SVS solution has decreased significantly. In 2014, in the province of KwaZuluNatal, stockouts decreased by 46 per cent for ARVs, 49 per cent for TB medicines, and 14 per cent for vaccines.
In our latest case study, we present the experience of the Vodacom subsidiary, Mezzanine, to demonstrate how mobile operators can address inefficiencies in the medicine supply chain. This case study describes Mezzanine’s broader strategy and portfolio of digital health tools, and demonstrates how the company has leveraged public-private partnerships to provide holistic digital health solutions at national scale.
Let’s chat:
– Have you had success in securing sustainable financing from government or other businesses for implementing your digital health solution at scale?
– Have you had success in driving uptake of your solution within the public health domain – What were your key strategies?
– Are you implementing a digital health solution for BoP populations in developing markets with a sustainable B2G or B2B business model?
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On Thursday, 30 August, the GSMA, in collaboration with the Global Digital Health Network, held a webinar on Digital health at scale: Key considerations for developing markets – Spotlighting the work of Mezzanine/Vodacom in Africa and Carlos Slim Foundation in Mexico. To find out what was discussed, click here to watch the presentation and download the slides.