SMS for Life Program Director, Forum 1.P-94, Novartis Campus, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Malar J. 2010 Oct 27;9:298. doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-9-298.
Maintaining adequate supplies of anti-malarial medicines at the health facility level in rural sub-Saharan Africa is a major barrier to effective management of the disease. Lack of visibility of anti-malarial stock levels at the health facility level is an important contributor to this problem.
A 21-week pilot study, 'SMS for Life', was undertaken during 2009-2010 in three districts of rural Tanzania, involving 129 health facilities. Undertaken through a collaborative partnership of public and private institutions, SMS for Life used mobile telephones, SMS messages and electronic mapping technology to facilitate provision of comprehensive and accurate stock counts from all health facilities to each district management team on a weekly basis. The system covered stocks of the four different dosage packs of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and quinine injectable.
Stock count data was provided in 95% of cases, on average. A high response rate (≥ 93%) was maintained throughout the pilot. The error rate for composition of SMS responses averaged 7.5% throughout the study; almost all errors were corrected and messages re-sent. Data accuracy, based on surveillance visits to health facilities, was 94%. District stock reports were accessed on average once a day. The proportion of health facilities with no stock of one or more anti-malarial medicine (i.e. any of the four dosages of AL or quinine injectable) fell from 78% at week 1 to 26% at week 21. In Lindi Rural district, stock-outs were eliminated by week 8 with virtually no stock-outs thereafter. During the study, AL stocks increased by 64% and quinine stock increased 36% across the three districts.
The SMS for Life pilot provided visibility of anti-malarial stock levels to support more efficient stock management using simple and widely available SMS technology, via a public-private partnership model that worked highly effectively. The SMS for Life system has the potential to alleviate restricted availability of anti-malarial drugs or other medicines in rural or under-resourced areas.
在撒哈拉以南非洲农村地区的卫生机构保持充足的抗疟药物供应是有效管理该疾病的主要障碍。卫生机构层面抗疟药物库存缺乏可见度是造成这一问题的一个重要原因。
2009-2010 年，在坦桑尼亚三个农村地区开展了一项为期 21 周的试点研究，名为“SMS for Life”，涉及 129 家卫生机构。SMS for Life 通过公共和私营机构的合作伙伴关系，利用移动电话、短信和电子地图技术，每周为每个地区管理团队提供来自所有卫生机构的全面、准确的库存计数。该系统涵盖了四种不同剂量的青蒿琥酯-咯萘啶（AL）和奎宁注射液的库存。
平均有 95%的情况下提供了库存计数数据。整个试点期间，保持了较高的回复率（≥93%）。整个研究期间，SMS 回复组成的错误率平均为 7.5%；几乎所有的错误都得到了纠正，并重新发送了信息。基于对卫生机构的监测访问，数据准确率为 94%。地区库存报告平均每天访问一次。一种或多种抗疟药物（即四种剂量的 AL 或奎宁注射液）无库存的卫生机构比例从第 1 周的 78%降至第 21 周的 26%。在林迪农村地区，到第 8 周时已经消除了缺货现象，此后几乎没有再出现缺货现象。在研究期间，三个地区的 AL 库存增加了 64%，奎宁库存增加了 36%。
SMS for Life 试点通过公私合作伙伴关系模式，利用简单且广泛应用的短信技术，提供了抗疟药物库存的可视性，从而支持更有效的库存管理，该模式非常有效。SMS for Life 系统有可能缓解农村或资源匮乏地区抗疟药物或其他药物供应受限的问题。
