New Examine Investigates the Position of Blockchain-Based mostly Information Seize & Crypto Incentives in Enhancing Affected person Outcomes
MMUST, the premier expertise and innovation college in Kenya, and Immunify.Life, a transformative and self-sustaining healthcare ecosystem secured by blockchain, has entered right into a partnership that can leverage MMUST’s educational and analysis prowess and the superior tech infrastructure of Immunify.Life to handle the problem of poor affected person information assortment, affected person relapses, and misaligned incentives with a selected deal with HIV-positive sufferers in Kenya.
Within the revolutionary new examine, Masinde Muliro College of Science and Expertise (MMUST) and Immunify.Life will use blockchain expertise to revamp well being information seize, transmission, and sharing processes in addition to therapy incentives to enhance the well being outcomes of HIV-positive sufferers in Kenya.
This will likely be a 5-year collaborative effort, with the foremost aim being to enhance affected person outcomes and strengthen the efficiency of the Kenyan healthcare system. By fastidiously designing medical research in several areas throughout Kenya and addressing key healthcare challenges confronted by a few of the nation’s most weak populations, MMUST and Immunify.Life hopes to precisely determine the danger components, causes, and obstacles confronted by HIV sufferers in contracting HIV, receiving therapy, and adhering to their care regimens.
One of many key options of the primary examine – which can begin in August – will likely be the usage of Immunify.Life’s token reward system in enhancing therapy adherence in HIV/AIDS sufferers. The entire related approvals (particularly from the Institutional Ethics Committee and the Nationwide Fee for Science, Expertise & Innovation) have been granted to MMUST for utilizing Immunify.Life’s expertise platform for this examine.
Whereas Kenya has achieved a variety of UNAID’s HIV 2020 objectives, the nation nonetheless has an extended solution to go, significantly within the areas of efficient and sustained ART (antiretroviral therapy – the first therapy for HIV/AIDS). About 70% of adults residing with HIV in Kenya entry therapy, however therapy protection for youngsters beneath the age of 15 is decrease at about 60%. In Kakamega County the place the MMUST and Immunify.Life examine will likely be performed, there are excessive prevalence, an infection, and relapse charges for males, ladies, and kids, making it the proper location for a complete, data-intensive examine of HIV/AIDS and the socio-economic, coverage, and associated challenges that forestall individuals from receiving the therapies out there to them.
Examine Targets
The first goal of the primary examine is to research the effectiveness of incentives and paperless monitoring methods on HIV therapy outcomes within the low socio-economic setting of Kakamega County. Different aims of the examine embody:
- Testing the effectiveness of crypto-based token rewards on HIV/AIDS therapy adherence amongst sufferers with suspected therapy failure in Kakamega County;
- Evaluating the influence of token rewards methods on healthcare suppliers;
- Figuring out the socioeconomic components that hinder the retention of HIV sufferers with suspected therapy failures;
- Growing and testing an built-in, cloud-based system for enhancing therapy adherence of HIV/AIDS sufferers with suspected therapy failures.
The HIV therapy outcomes examine is the proper alternative for MMUST, Immunify.Life, and different official companions and organizations comparable to Kenyan healthcare coverage leaders and strategists to conduct a real-world check of the effectiveness of crypto-based rewards and blockchain-based information seize and sharing on HIV therapy adherence charges. The applied sciences in play have the ability to vastly enhance therapy adherence and empower sufferers, communities, and whole international locations, and this examine hopes to show past any doubt the advantages of an built-in, blockchain-based method to tackling a few of the world’s most essential well being challenges.
Masinde Muliro College of Science and Expertise is a technology-oriented, revolutionary college in Kenya. With about 17,000 college students enrolled, the college focuses on worldwide collaboration. It has a partnership with an NGO referred to as Save the Kids Fund which staffs 25,000 individuals in 117 international locations.
The Immunify.Life workforce says its mission is to “rework the panorama of well being administration and information utilization” by strengthening international well being methods and entry to well being information “by way of an incentivized information seize instrument developed for the Immunify.Life illness register.” The group hopes to scale organically by increasing its affected person base by way of working with numerous authorities entities, NGOs and donors.
