The system is called Smartphone Enhanced Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (SEVIA). SEVIA allows newly trained cervical cancer screening providers to share VIA images with trainers and expert reviewers and receive timely feedback to improve the quality of screening and track relevant outcomes. In recognizing that our system strengths allow active (real-time) data and clinically related processes while allowing health providers to actively intervene and manage a number of evolving threats, we decided to test our system to utilize task-shifting and tailored mobile health tools to tackle the massive burden of cervical cancer in Tanzania (and 6 other countries in East and West Africa) through cervical cancer screening training and monitoring programs among non-physician health providers. These programs use our mobile smartphone-based platform to focus on health provider skills enhancement, same-day treatment for precancerous lesions of the cervix (cryotherapy), referrals for cancerous lesions as well as a robust, real-time data monitoring and evaluation system that is accessed by government partners/stakeholders and other users at the local, district, regional and national level.
Over the last 5 years, SkyConnect & Wema Inc. have massively invested in digital solutions capable of detecting cervical cancer using mobile phones. Our system strengths allow active (real-time) data and clinically related processes while allowing health providers to actively intervene and cure pre-cancerous lesions in a single visit approach with support and supervision from mentors and peer reviewers who are ‘virtually’ located at a different geographic site.
Early detection refers to well-organized cervical cancer screening programmes and intervention targeting specified age groups. Diagnosis and treatment are integral part of any screening method. Treatment of precancerous lesion can be done on a single visit using relatively simple procedures that prevent progression to cancer. Mobile technologies have been widely promoted as future tools for health, especially in resource-poor settings. There are genuine, persuasive reasons as to why mobile technologies offer so much potential: mobile phones are a direct means of communication between frontline workers, administrators, program managers, patients, and communities.
SkyConnect Inc., remains a social enterprise that strives to provide sustainable public health digital solutions. Currently serving more than 10 countries in Africa & Asia through simple and low-cost tools that have the potential for intractable health improvement challenges. We aim to heal & bridge the long-standing barrier between policy-makers and ground-level solutions.