South African mTriage speeds up disaster responses

Created by students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), in collaboration with The Open Medicine Project, the multi-parameter, mobile-assisted device rapidly assesses and sorts patients according to severity of illness in emergency departments of the developing world, particularly war zones and disaster areas.

Careful design

The contexts in which the mTriage system will be used necessitated a careful design that takes into consideration the complexities associated with these environments. A participatory design approach was used involving the different user groups who actively co-designed the prototype. As the project uses design to ensure that timeous medical care is provided to those in grim situations, mTriage has been recognised as a WDC 2014 project.

The project uses the South African Triage Scale (SATS), a composite scoring system that utilises the clinical parameters of heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature, neurological score and the presenting symptom to classify patients into different acuity categories. A score indicating illness severity will be calculated and displayed automatically on the mobile device after the software application prompts the user with additional questions.

Since its development, the Khayelitsha Hospital and over 300 healthcare workers around the world have used the device. Negotiations are currently underway to roll it out across 10 facilities in the Western Cape and wider.

For more information, go to www.wdccapetown2014.com/projects/project/595.