Local software firm, Rwanda Build Program (RWBuild) that designed 912Rwanda, an electronic platform that uses data to improve pre-hospital transport of injured people, says it has secured £3 million (approximately Rwf4bn) funding from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR, through its Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) programme, aims to fund high-quality, timely research. The software is an innovative electronic communications platform that regularly collects information from hospitals on the availability of staff and equipment, and from the ambulance crew on patient status. The system then uses this information to match the patient with the nearest hospital that can accept them. The latest data indicates that every year, injury causes nine per cent of deaths, 47 per cent of which occur before patients reach hospitals in Rwanda. Like many developing countries, the country experiences long delays in getting patients to hospitals as all communication between patients, ambulances, and hospitals is done using multiple phone calls. The development will also see researchers from the University of Rwanda and that of Birmingham partner to finalise the development of the software in order to explore its real-time capabilities. “Injuries in developing countries are common and their number is expected to increase, but death and disability after an injury can be substantially reduced if people reach healthcare facilities in a timely manner,” said Justine Davies, Professor of Global Health Research at the University of Birmingham. Davies shared similar sentiments with Jean Claude Byiringiro, Dean of the Medical School at the University of Rwanda, who said that the software could play a key role in other developing countries facing similar challenges. “Understanding how we can reduce the time it takes to get injured patients to the hospital is critical to saving lives. This project could play a key role in developing similar solutions in countries facing the same sort of problems.” At the onset, the initiative will be piloted in Kigali and Musanze, before it can be gradually extended to other cities. “We are excited to move this project forward. This emergency software decision solution will ensure pre-hospital patients reach the right hospital and help reduce the ambulance total journey time. I look forward to working with our partners on this project. We can provide the best strategies and processes with these great partners as they prove its capability,” Rob Rickard of RWBuild added.
