Projects: Collaborate.Health
Improving Insulin Pricing and Availability
Information on a life-saving drug to inform decision making and policy
- Agency Partner
- Health Action International
- Course
- Using Mobile Technologies to Improve Health Outcomes
Overview
A lack of insulin causes diabetes, an important non-communicable disease worldwide, causing 270,000 deaths in the South and Central America region. Insulin and other drugs that replace, stimulate circulating insulin, or assist in other ways to maintain a normal blood sugar are effective treatment for diabetes, but access to these life-saving drugs is limited by sub-optimal availability and high prices of insulin in health facilities.
Context
Availability of insulin in the public sector, private sector, primary care institutions, and private retail pharmacies is limited. In addition, access to insulin is difficult because of limited competition among insulin suppliers, insulin tariffs and taxes, and patient insurance with high out of pocket payments.
Addressing the Challenge and Constraints of Insulin Sources and Supply Study (ACCISS) developed by Health Action International (HAI) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) is a phone-based system to monitor the availability and prices of insulin in health facilities and households and to address inequities and inefficiencies in the global insulin market.
Challenge
Provide accurate regional and country level information on insulin prices and availability.
Solution
A mobile application that collects regular information on insulin prices and availability, measures the changes in price over time and consistently and regularly provides information to stakeholders about insulin prices and availability, documents compliance with existing price regulations, assesses the impact of interventions to improve diabetes care, and provides feedback to pharmacies on their prices relative to others.
Results
Countries will utilize dashboards generated from the survey data collected by country-level enumerators and exported from CommCare HQ to monitor individualized data and to show trends in insulin pricing and availability over time. Ministry of Health researchers in any one specific country will be able to monitor trends in regional pricing and availability in their own country and improve decision-making and policy in their countries.
Project Timeline
This project took six months to complete from kick-off meeting to presentation of final deliverables. Click the button below for a detailed timeline.
View Project Timeline
Meet the Tech 1 Mobile Application Development Team
Nour Al-Sultan is a first year MPH candidate studying Program Management and Global Health. She is interested in healthcare consulting and strategy development for global health initiatives, with a specific interest in improving the management of healthcare facilities and patient experience through mHealth in the Middle East.
Meaghan Tetro is a first year MPH student studying Monitoring and Evaluation. She has a background in business management, and has worked to increase health outcomes for refugee populations domestically and abroad. She is interested in learning how innovations around mHealth can benefit populations all around the world.
Bridget Muckian is a first year MPH student studying Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She has a background in biology and clinical research, and has experience developing a mobile app for use in clinical drug trials. She is interested in the epidemiology of chronic diseases and hopes to explore how to use mHealth strategies to improve health outcomes both domestically and abroad.
Rachana Talekar is a first year MPH student studying Community Assessment, Program Designing, Implementation and Evaluation. She has a background in Dental medicine and surgery from India. She is interested in using mHealth to improve community outreach and data collection methods in developing countries to conduct innovative intervention methods for better health results.
Michelle Iovino is a first year MPH candidate studying Health Communication and Promotion, and Mental Health and Substance Use. Her background includes experience in information technology, psychology, and graphic design. She is very interested in the integration of mobile technology to improve health outcomes and furthering the availability of public health resources and information to the public.
The Mobile Application in Action
Client deliverables for this project included user guides for administrators and data collectors and a slide deck for the client on the development and use of the mobile application.