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>News -
eLabtronics partners with Baobab Health in Malawi
eLabtronics partners with Baobab Health in Malawi
Baobab Health
Partnership (www.baobabhealth.org)
has taken an aggressive approach to the use of information technology to
improve healthcare delivery in the developing world.
In Malawi, a country with less than 200 doctors and an HIV/AIDS
prevalence in excess of 1 million people, innovative uses of technology
are essential to tackle the huge burden of AIDS-related illnesses and
deaths.
Baobab designs and
builds inexpensive low-power touchscreen computers, and creates open
source software to improve healthcare delivery in Malawian hospitals and
HIV clinics. Software is designed to emulate the
highly protocolized model of care that has been developed by the
Ministry of Health in Malawi. eLabtronics is
supporting the development of an optical touchscreen which can be built
inexpensively by local technicians in Malawi as a replacement for the
current approach of importing a costly resistive touchscreen sensor.
The Baobab Lab
Baobab's technology allows the tracking of patient information over
time: patients are issued unique bar-codes, which
are then scanned at each visit to bring up the patient's medical record.
In addition to promoting continuity of care, it allows
(real-time) statistical monitoring and studying of health data, helping
to focus and efficiently target HIV treatment programs.
More than 500,000 patients have been issued unique patient
identifiers to date, and Baobab is scaling up to a nation-wide system.
Roughly 12,000 patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART)
are being managed using Baobab systems.
Central to Baobab's plans to scale-up is a philosophy of hiring and
training local Malawian professionals. This model is
essential to ensure that the goals of the organization are home-grown
rather than imposed, and that the solutions are sustainable in Malawi.
The Touchscreen
The intuitive graphical interface of eLabtronics CoreChart and ezCircuit
Designer greatly simplifies microcontroller programming, fast-tracking
the development process and allowing non-specialists to participate in
the electronics design. It is an ideal fit with the
innovative approach of Baobab. Computer systems
comprising 3 touchscreens, a central server, and backup batteries are
constructed for a few thousand dollars using donated terminals and some
creative re-engineering. The touchscreen
workstations are all powered using "Power-over-Ethernet", greatly
simplifying the cabling requirements. Some systems
are being deployed with solar and wind generators.
Wireless towers 20+ meters in height link up rural clinics creating a
growing infrastructure of in-country bandwidth used for moving medical
data between sites. Beyond the development of the
optical touchscreen, Baobab is excited to take advantage of the
eLabtronics toolkit for further development and optimization of other
aspects of its system. The creativity and innovation
of Baobab's local staff will be fostered with these tools at their
disposal.
“eLabtronics is privileged and honored to contribute to Baobab’s
efforts to promote development in Malawi,” said Peng Choo, CEO of
eLabtronics. “We hope by sharing our knowledge and providing CoreChart
sponsorship for the design of low cost touch screens, eLabtronics can
contribute to the transfer of microchip programming and electronic
skills to organizations like Baobab Health which are based in low income
countries. We are keen to use this baby step to expand on CoreChart
sponsorships in Malawi to encourage businesses to form “Alliances for
Poverty Relief” in order to support and sustain the great work of Baobab
Health.”
About
Baobab
Since 2001, Baobab
has been building and deploying health care technology that improves
patient care in Malawi. With a small team of mostly Malawian staff,
Baobab has innovated a reliable and low cost approach approach that
matches the needs of it users. Baobab is currently aiming to expand
their HIV treatment system to rural health centers throughout the
country. We could use your help - visit
www.baobabhealth.org
for more information.
About
CoreChart sponsorship
CoreChart is likened
to “Windows for microchip programming”. CoreChart revolutionises the way
microchips are programmed. It is a user friendly graphical “machine
language” which makes microchip programming highly accessible in
education and industry.
CoreChart
sponsorships are deployed in humanitarian projects to help
underprivileged people. The aim is to use CoreChart sponsorship to
connect with other sponsorships to provide for sustainable ICT skills
development in the least developed countries.
If you wish to fnd
out more about CoreChart sponsorship please email:
sponsorship@elabtronics.com
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