CIVIL SOCIETY
ORGANISATIONS
HAVE AN IMPORTANT
ROLE IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY
TO ELIMINATE VIRAL
HEPATITIS.
Currently, out of 71 million people
living with hepatitis C, only 20%
know they are ill. That’s 57 million
men, women and children at risk
of developing cirrhosis and liver
cancer. Given there’s a cure for
this condition, it is imperative we
“find the missing millions”. World
Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) is calling
for a scale-up of diagnosis to find
those affected by viral hepatitis
and link them to care. Technology
can be an effective weapon to
increase access to testing and
treatment.
When technology is tailored to
the end user it has a greater
impact. Nowhere is this more
apparent than in health
technology. Key to the success of
any health innovation is patient
involvement in its development to
establish the needs of the patient
group. WHA members across
the world are leading the way by
collaborating with private sector
partners to develop innovative
solutions to eliminate hepatitis.
Recently, WHA members in
Pakistan ‘The Health Foundation’
and the ‘Gujranwala Liver
Foundation’ have been working
with Mastercard on a pilot
s cheme to treat hepatitis C
patients. The project tailors the
‘Mastercard Aid’ technology to
the local environment, delivering
impact in this field.
Technology and innovation
allow us to connect and bring
communities together, and that’s
crucial when you are looking to
enhance the patient journey.
Telemedicine, such as ‘Project
Echo’, is now being widely
used globally to train health
care professionals and raise
awareness of hepatitis. Aside
from democratising knowledge,
software is currently being rolled
out in a number of countries for
use in different settings, including
prisons, hospitals and primary
care centres to remind doctors to
test for hepatitis C should other
results indicate they are at risk.
“Technology and
innovation allow us
to connect and bring
communities together,
and that’s crucial when
you are looking to
enhance the patient
journey.”
In Pakistan, the Medical
Research Council is using
SMS text message to increase
awareness and link people
to testing facilities. Through
their system, a text message
is sent about the risk factors
and recipients are asked to
reply with ‘1’ if they have
experienced any of these or
‘2’ for they haven’t. If the
message reply is ‘yes’ the
mobile company will send them
another message with details
of a nearby health centre for
testing. This message will
include the name, address and
phone number of the facility.
On receiving the message a
reasonable amount of money
will be transferred to the user’s
mobile account to ensure they
are able to attend their testing.
In India, WHA member
‘Chennai Liver Foundation’ is
developing an app to educate
doctors on viral hepatitis.
In Australia, WHA member,
‘Hepatitis Victoria’ has
launched an app that helps
patients manage their illness by
enabling them to record their
results, manage medications
and appointments and find out
the latest health information,
and in the US, St Joseph’s
Medical Centre now uses multi-
lingual touch-screen kiosks,
separate from the patient
waiting-area to screen patients.
These kiosks help overcome
people’s embarrassment and
reluctance to discuss drug
use and sexual history with a
medical professional.
There are many more examples
of technology being used
around the world and as
more innovative solutions
get developed, the needs of
the end user have to be at
the centre of the technology.
Developers need to utilise the
knowledge and experience
of civil society to work with
affected communities to
develop technology that has
impact and help us eliminate
hepatitis C.
See the Mastercard project in action at
www.worldhepatitisalliance.org
“The patients who used the technology
have been excited and feel that they are
being provided with some very high-level
hi-tech healthcare It was a great
learning experience to work with this
technology and we hope that the learnings
can be used to create more holistic
healthcare delivery.”
Dr Laila Rizvi,
Executive Director
The Health Foundation (Pakistan)
6 hep Voice October 2018
October 2018 7
hep Voice