INTRO

Welcome to another edition of our podcast. I’m Mia Malan.

How do you improve healthcare and save money at the same time?

One answer, experts say, is to make better use of patient data.

But that is not as simple as it sounds.

Our reporter Gavin Fischer has visited a project on a farm where doctors
have been trying to do just that: use data to map the health needs of the
area and, as a result, spend less money to treat them.

Masego Rahlaga is voicing this report.

ACT 1:
Sounds of blood pressure cuff being loosened
“Can I do it to you?”

SCRIPT

At a private health clinic on a farm in Delmas, east of Johannesburg,

nurse Vusimuzi Zetta is performing a blood pressure test.
He’s done this hundreds of times before.
But the technology he’s using this time is different.

FX 1
Sounds of blood pressure test and music run under script.

SCRIPT:
The cuff on the patient’s arm plays music.
And it’s bluetooth enabled.

ACT 2
“It’s nice neh, it’s very nice, patients love them. Then it gives you the
results, you see. This is your results.”

SCRIPT:
Vusimuzi holds up an electronic tablet computer.
It displays and stores the results it received via bluetooth.
ACT 3
“In everything it happens like this, you go to the scale, it will be like
this, I can do a temperature it will be like this, I can do an ECG, it’s
going to be like this.”

SCRIPT
All these tests, and many more, are options with the health kit Vusimuzi is
using.
The kit fits into a black box the size of a suitcase.
Within minutes, a large range of tests can be performed.

ACT 4
“At the end results of all the process the software tells you what
steps should we take, so it’s additional knowledge as well. You use
your knowledge, then you compare and then you can get a
significant diagnosis.”

SCRIPT
The data collected from patients doesn’t just help to diagnose and treat
patients.
The information is fed into a live database.
It’s then used to map the health needs of a specific area.

FX 2
Background sound of clinic
ACT 11
“You must be brave if you want to get tested, it’s not easy but you
must be brave.”

SCRIPT
At the Delmas farm clinic, Joseph has just finished a series of health
checks.

ACT 12
“Especially when testing HIV, that’s why saying must be brave. One
hundred percent I was worried, I was saying I’m not going to test it,
but finally I did it. That’s why I’m saying I’m relieved, and happy,
because my result is negative.”
SCRIPT
Joseph looks almost giddy with relief.
While he was given the all clear, his data is fed into the database to start
building a picture of the health needs of the local population.
Raymond Campbell is a medical doctor and the CEO of Phulukisa Health
Solutions.
The company provides the health kit in the black box, and manages the
database that is built from patients’ data.

Phulukisa breaks down information into ways that government can’t

currently do.

ACT 7
“The fact that you can go beyond your facilities down to streets and
blocks, I can see ‘oh in this area that disease is growing or there is a
trend’. The immediacy, the ability, the agility of government would
improve.”

SCRIPT
The Eastern Cape and some hospitals in Gauteng and the North West
have asked Phulukisa to help them with data collection.
The company’s health kits cost R20,000twenty thousand rand each, but
they’re provided free for six6 months.
Currently, though, their reach is still very small.
The patient database doesn’t even reach into the thousands1000s.
So what role can they play in informing government health policy?

ACT 8
“It shows what can be done and it’s much more agile, where as
government systems are more slow.”

FX 3: Fade up sounds of egg- packing machine, run under script

SCRIPT
At the Delmas clinic, Joseph is one of over 700 employees of Rossgro
chicken farm.
Rossgro is the company that set up the clinic on its land.
In the busy, noisy packing warehouse, the company’s machines box over
a million eggs a day, ready for the shops.

ACT 13: “If this machine’s timing is out, you see eggs fly all over the
place.”

SCRIPT
Naude Rousseau is one of four4 brothers who run the farm.
But he hasn’t always been a chicken farmer.
Before that, he was a medical doctor.
It gave him insight into the country’s healthcare problems.

ACT 14: “There’s a massive need in South Africa for primary health
care. Our clinics are completely full, it’s overflowing, our
government clinics. And it’s not very efficient, very effective.”

SCRIPT
Nazir Ismail, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, says
people too often forget the importance of data.

ACT 15
“It’s not something as tangible as concrete, as a nice tablet or a nice
flash card that you give someone and that is often the challenge with
data is being able to appreciate its value. It is like a goldmine that
really could save you a lot of money or direct your efforts more
efficiently.”

FX 4
Wild track outside clinic

SCRIPT
The Delmas clinic is one small part of the new drive toward data.
Ismail says it’s a great reminder of how important improving the end
product is to people’s lives.
ACT 9 CUT
“These smaller efforts are very useful at providing the evidence
because it provides your mode of surveillance in the community and
can pick up things much quicker but the longer term planning I’d say
that these things should be migrated onto more universal platforms
that are government led.”

ACT 16
“Hi my name is Sandy Mellon, and I’ve been using this new
technology, it gives you a lot of different tests in one package.”

SCRIPT
Sandy is not a Rossgro employee, but lives nearby.
For R220 he too can access the screenings done with Phulukisa’s
technology.
He has been diagnosed with a liver condition.

ACT 17
“I don’t feel well at the moment but I have been here three times and
my health has improved, every clinic should have such an item.”

Sandy says he is happy if his data is used to build a better picture of the
health needs in his area.
In the end, he’s just grateful to be able to afford health care that is helping
him recover.
His message for the staff at the clinic is clear.

ACT 18
“What an awesome job you are doing, I can’t say anything more than
that. And you are so thorough and may god bless you.”

OUTRO
Sandy, a patient at a clinic on Rossgro farm, in Delmas, east of
Johannesburg, ending that report by Gavin Fischer.

The story was voiced by Masego Rahlaga and the sound production was
done by Danny Booysen.
Until next time, I’m Mia Malan.