PreCare — Preventive Healthcare for Everyone, Everywhere

Poor access to people in rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa presents a significant obstacle to providing the area with comprehensive medical care — and on top of this, the people themselves often have limited mobility options. These issues make it difficult to ensure consistent healthcare coverage for many people. They also present obstacles to putting preventive measures in place across the board and to detecting and curbing life-threatening infectious diseases and epidemics at an early stage. The PreCare project has developed a compact mobile care unit that is installed in the form of a cabin on an all-terrain pickup truck, allowing it to be transported to remote regions.

Who will benefit from the new technology?

PreCare benefits people who live in remote regions and have previously found it difficult to access healthcare. In addition to providing individual treatment, the mobile unit allows data to be collected systematically, making it possible to identify epidemics and to both manage and follow up on comprehensive vaccination and medication campaigns in the affected regions. Satellite connections can also be used to conduct telemedicine consultations, meaning that the physicians no longer have to be there on the ground. PreCare has the ability to improve living conditions and economic situations in entire regions.

In principle, its modular structure also has the potential to accommodate alternative instruments on its mobile platform — for use in animal welfare, nature conservation or tourism scenarios. 

How does the new solution work?

The challenge involved developing a mobile medical care unit with exceptional all-terrain mobility and the ability to not only transport modern medical and infrastructure technology safely but also deploy it reliably at the destination. In addition, it needed to be inexpensive to produce in large quantities.

The mobile medical care platform developed in the PreCare project is designed so that it can be installed on a commercially available pickup truck and used in a variety of ways in the field. It consists of a cabin that contains modular healthcare equipment such as a water treatment system, equipment for producing disinfectants, a refrigerator and a telecommunications unit, and can also accommodate medical devices, drugs and test equipment. Photovoltaic modules and a battery provide the unit with a self-sufficient power source.

Relevant local stakeholders became involved in the project early on to ensure acceptance among the population and identify exact needs in the area. 

What makes the project unique?

The modular, highly flexible medical care platform provides an appealing solution for improving healthcare systematically across rural areas. Although cost-effective, it can accommodate state-of-the-art examination and laboratory equipment and provide an internet connection in almost every location. What’s more, it is easy to use and requires very little maintenance. The only staff needed to operate the platform are a nurse or similarly qualified medic and a driver, making the solution much less expensive to run than mobile clinics — which are able to cover a wider range of services but require at least one physician.

Relevant local stakeholders became involved in the project early on to identify exact needs in the area and ensure acceptance among the population. In South Africa, the project team began its work with a prototype of the mobile care platform, operated in the field alongside NGO Rhiza Babuyile. The findings from this work informed the design of a second prototype. During the next stage, the plan is to have the unit produced by local business concerns such as vehicle installers, engineering firms and photovoltaic companies. To enable this, the project team has established the start-up S Mile Solutions.

Why is the Fraunhofer Future Foundation supporting this project?

PreCare has an immediate focus on making a visible contribution to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 — to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages — by improving medical care in rural regions. The foundation is especially committed to involving stakeholders in the development of technology solutions early on, something that the project team has exemplified. The project’s long-term objective is to establish local series production, giving local stakeholders the opportunity to get actively involved and creating both new jobs and a local value chain.

PreCare is also providing a model illustration of the foundation’s main focus in the funding it provides: to bridge the gap between technology development and transfer to application. The Fraunhofer spin-off S Mile Solutions marks the final milestone in achieving this.

Through its technology solution, the team is also laying the foundation for fulfilling a wide range of mobile care needs with a flexible approach: Not only is PreCare suitable for delivering care to rural areas, but it can also be adapted to provide assistance in disaster situations and conduct field and data collection studies of the healthcare system. It also has potential to be developed for supplying clean water or electricity.