Durban - Students have came up with an app to help patients stick to treatment regimes.
The Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine students’ Pill Alert App will remind and educate patients about completing the course of medication prescribed by their doctors.
Fifth-year student Kapil Narain, 23, and first-year student Mohamed Hoosen Suleman, 22, said they had received positive feedback regarding their app and had begun engaging with senior academics at UKZN, the Department of Science and Technology, the World Health Organisation and ReAct Africa to assess how it could be implemented.
They presented their innovative solution at the recent conference on Antibiotic Stewardship Conservation in Africa to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance. At the conference, hosted at the Senate Chambers on Westville campus, academics from 15 countries came together to discuss innovative strategies to curb the global health threat of antimicrobial resistance.
“This was the first time our app was showcased publicly,” said Narain.
He said the main purpose of the app was to improve patient compliance with antimicrobial medication (antibiotics, anti-fungals, anti-protozoals, and antivirals).
He said people tended to use medication while they felt ill and stop as soon as they felt better, but weak bacteria die quickly while the stronger ones take time. When a patient stops taking medication, these bacteria get stronger and start learning how to fight antibiotics, leading to the medication not working when the patient uses them again.
“Our research has shown that people use apps to do just about anything, and this app will remind patients to continue taking pills until the instructed duration ends, and it will educate patients about various health issues.
“For now, we're creating this app for doctors and all health practitioners. They’ll use it by putting in patients’ details and the medication they’ve given them. Patients will receive SMSes that remind them to take the medication every day, and the patient can respond to the SMS with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (indicating whether they have taken the medication or not).”
Narain said he and his team were still developing the Pill Alert app. They are aiming to introduce it to private and public health facilities.
Suleman, a UKZN pharmacy Summa Cum Laude graduate said: “Antimicrobial Resistance is indeed a threat to global health security and patient non-compliance is a major contributing factor to AMR. Our mobile app will ensure that blood concentrations of the antimicrobial drug is above the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration thus bacteria have little chance to survive. It is imperative that patients keep to the prescribed dosage interval to ensure that micro-organisms do not alter their structure, rendering them resistant to medication".
Dr Walter Fuller, Technical Officer, Antimicrobial resistance, World Health Organization African Regional Office welcomed the idea.
“WHO is encouraging the scientific community to constantly engage in discussions and invent innovative strategies to reduce the global burden of Antimicrobial resistance. Solutions should be context and country specific. The World Health Organization supports novel ideas that seek to address health-related issues and bring a positive outcome to the health and well-being of population,” he said.