Drug and Stock Management System for Rural areas of developing countries

Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Royal Institute of Technology and Ericsson Sweden AB are involved in the international project ”ICT4MPOWER” to develop National Electronic Health Record (EHR) System in Uganda. ICT4MPOWER System resulting from the project will provide a roadmap for implementation and maintenance of low cost EHR System in developing countries.

One of the core components of Electronic Health Record System is Drugs and Stock Management. This is the field, which includes investigation of logistics systems, drug warehouse systems, and drug management and monitoring system.

The issue of drug management is very crucial in developing countries, like Uganda, because many health units in rural areas face constant drug stockouts, and there is no proper logistics support and supervision for health workers and others involved in the drug distribution and management.
Information and Communication Technology can play very important role to assist in proper drug and stock management, and enable better drug stocks in rural health units of Uganda.

Therefore, we believe that candidates for this thesis work can apply their experience to develop a prototype of such a system, based on already existing work in this field. We are looking for a candidate, who is passionate about programming (Perl, Python, Java) and is comfortable in Open Source and Linux environment and follows Agile Method of Development. We also believe the candidate should have an interest to work with international efforts, especially targeted to developing countries.

Chosen candidate will be part of a bigger team of programmers, who are also very passionate about developing future solutions for developing countries.
Thesis work might include a trip to Uganda, where a prototype will be tested and implemented in the district.

The details of the thesis work will be discussed during interview with potential candidates.

We believe 1-2 persons are suitable for carrying out this thesis work.

The place of work will be in Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.

Financial compensations will be agreed with selected students.