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AMREF Kenya receives matching grant for mHealth Project

March 7, 2014. Nairobi, Kenya: AMREF Kenya and WelTel have partnered to secure a $2 million investment to improve patient care and expand the mobile health (mHealth) program across rural Kenya.

Half of the funding, USD$1 million, is from APHIAPLUS IMARISHA, a five year USAID-funded project managed by AMREF Kenya. Grand Challenges Canada, an organization funded by the Government of Canada that supports bold ideas with big impact in global health, has also invested USD$1 million.

Dr. Lennie Kyomuhangi, Country Director, AMREF Kenya notes that the matching grant will take mHealth interventions to a wider beneficiary cohort.

“The progress of the mHealth program is impressive and we are eager to see communities gain from the knowledge, skills and means to maintain their own health. Mobile phone use and penetration in Kenya is by far the largest anywhere in the world. By using this interface to bring healthcare services within access to those in need, we are empowering communities to achieve lasting health change. This project has the potential to transform the lives of the people in Kenya’s northern and arid lands”.

The basis for the WelTel mHealth program came from a clinical study conducted by Dr. Richard Lester, scientific director of WelTel and faculty in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. In collaboration with the University of Manitoba and University of Nairobi, Dr. Lester found that a simple “how are you?” text, sent weekly to patients on anti-viral therapy for HIV allowed nurses to easily manage and follow up with a large number of patients. Patients in turn reported better support and were 12% more likely to stay on their drug therapy, which in turn led to a 9% increase in patients with full viral suppression.

“This was one of the first trials that demonstrated improved HIV treatment behaviors”, says Dr. Lester. ”Given the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, almost 30 million, these small but significant changes can be amplified to massive impact if brought to scale”.

Soon after the results were published, Dr. Lester helped establish WelTel to develop and apply his mobile mHealth strategy for widespread clinical use.

“Moving research to clinical practice is difficult since the challenges of the real-world are often not addressed in a clinical trial”, says Dr Peter Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada. “With WelTel, Dr. Lester has developed a technology platform and partnerships in Kenya that have the potential to allow this mHealth strategy to be cost effective, self-sufficient, and most importantly, save lives”.

The positive impact of the WelTel platform in Kenya is expected to be large. In addition to HIV patients on antiviral therapy, the program will also be applied to women and children’s health who are at the core of AMREF’s vision for lasting health change in Africa. Patients being treated for tuberculosis in Kenya will also benefit from the expansion of the program.

Dr. Lester now based at the Immunity and Infection Research Centre at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, in addition to being the lead global health researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UBC, is excited about the potential of WelTel and wants to use the technology platform to improve patient care in both Africa and North America.

“This is an effective tool for patient care that can be applied to all sorts of conditions that require long-term maintenance, and if it works in Africa, where there are many barriers to health care, then it should work here in Canada as well.”

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For more information contact:
AMREF Kenya Communication Office
info@amref.org

Editors Notes

AMREF is Africa’s largest International Health NGO. Our vision is for “lasting health change in Africa”: communities with the knowledge, skills and means to maintain their good health and break the cycle of poor health and poverty. With a focus on women and children, AMREF works with the most vulnerable African communities to achieve lasting health change. Learn more www.amref.org.

APHIAPLUS IMARISHA is a five year USAID-funded project to transform the health status of the people of the Northern Arid Lands (NAL) of Kenya by supporting Government of Kenya (GoK) efforts through a country-led, country-owned and country-managed approach. This project is implemented by a team of six partners led by AMREF Kenya.

Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact™ in global health.
We are funded by the Government of Canada through the Development Innovation Fund announced in the 2008 Federal Budget. We fund innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada. Grand Challenges Canada works with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and other global health foundations and organizations to find sustainable, long-term solutions through Integrated Innovation − bold ideas that integrate science, technology, social and business innovation. Grand Challenges Canada is hosted at the Sandra Rotman Centre. www.grandchallenges.ca