South Africa, 9 April 2020: BroadReach Group is proudly partnering with the Mpumalanga Department of Health to roll out its Covid-19 community screening mobile app, on the Vantage platform, today (9 April). Over the next month, thousands of community healthcare workers are being deployed throughout the province, with a population of 4.5 million, in a mass screening effort to help control the epidemic.
The Vantage mobile app allows healthcare workers to input screening data instantly to feed consolidated, real time insights to the nerve centre in Mpumalanga, a data lab built by BroadReach Healthcare thanks to PEPFAR and USAID funding. Vantage, using it’s sophisticated artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities, will give real time insights to the Department of Health to identify vulnerable hotspots and prioritise focus for action and resource allocation. This single-line-of-sight tool will play an integral role in stopping the spread of Covid-19 through a data-led approach that promotes a virtuous cycle of mass screening and testing, treatment and contact tracing, and hospital and facility readiness.
“We stand side by side with our colleagues in Mpumalanga to control and conquer Covid-19. Vantage will aid the provincial leadership with real-time, data for making key decisions during these critical times,” says Chris A. LeGrand, BroadReach Group CEO. “It is all about having the right information at the right time, to take the right action.”
The Vantage platform is underpinned by Microsoft’s suite of applications and is hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud, which enables easy integration with a range of digital tools. The effectiveness of Vantage has been proven through the dramatic success in KwaZulu-Natal Province to reach their UNAIDS 90-90-90 HIV goals in Ugu, where 90% of people living with HIV know their status, 90% receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90% achieve viral suppression. By using the tool’s predictive analytics to pinpoint action and support patient prescription adherence, Ugu became the first district in the country to achieve the 90-90-90 goal. KwaZulu-Natal is now using Vantage to manage the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Department of Health has named the Vantage app, Siyayinqoba Sisonke: Together we will conquer. Mpumulanga Premier, Hon. Refilwe Mtsweni says the Vantage app is instrumental in protecting citizens, “The [Vantage] mobile app will enable clinical teams to respond faster and with higher accuracy in our effort to safeguard our citizens. It will allow the province to have real-time information and make quick and well informed decisions and deploy resources where they are needed most.”
The full Vantage platform was launched in the province in 2019 to help manage the province’s HIV epidemic control efforts, which form part of the PEPFAR-funded USAID award, APACE (Accelerating Progress and Achievement to Control the Epidemic). BroadReach has supported the Department of Health in Mpumalanga since 2014.
Mpumalanga is the second province that Vantage will be operational in, alongside KwaZulu-Natal. In all, 4 420 Department of Health and 255 BroadReach staff have been trained on the app to date, and training and rollout continues.