On Thursday 11 June, the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) launched a project that aims to equip community health workers with digital technology and data tools to facilitate COVID-19 response and prevention.
This initiative, worth Rwf 223 million, is co-funded by the French Agency for AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Research (ANRS) and by the French Embassy.
Two other French research institutes, namely Institut Pasteur and INSERM, will participate in the implementation and evaluation of the project.
RBC said the project will promote wider and faster case detection, help tracking contacts, support social recovery reintegration and ensure a link between Rwanda ‘s population and health care system.
According to the French Embassy, the project is the outcome of a partnership between RBC Medical Research Unit and France-based Nancy Center for Clinical Investigation.
The project will be piloted across the country in four districts: two at Kigali, as well as the Gicumbi and Nyamasheke districts. It will see 400 community health workers equipped with a smartphone app that allows for greater and faster detection of cases, particularly in rural areas.
The mobile app is expected to strengthen pandemic and patient care surveillance over a period of three months. The technology will be rolled out across the country following assessment from the Ministry of Health.
The use of digital technology in Rwanda’s health care system has been on the rise since the virus broke out. This project adds to the use of robots , drones, data modules and other emerging technologies currently being used against Covid-19 in the national strategy.
The project designers said that it would rely on the community-based health practitioners’ network whose role in primary health care is remarkable. They are also known as health heroes with their Ebola experience, who can play an unchallenged role in managing and stopping the pandemic.
Jeremie Blin, France’s Chargé d’Affaires to Rwanda, said in a statement that the project will improve cooperation between both countries, especially in the field of health, as the whole world is struggling with unprecedented viral effects.
He added that the health sector is one of the French Embassy’s bilateral priorities in Rwanda, with regard to the signing this year of a memorandum of understanding between the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Rwandan Ministry of Health.
