“After collaborating for several years with Aviro Health to create and maintain the SA HIV/TB Hotline app, the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at UCT decided to partner with Aviro Health again to digitise the South African Medicines Formulary textbook. The process has been complex including research, working through a user design process, development of a content management system and extensive beta testing, but has enabled us to design, create and build an exciting new SAMF app and website. The experience has been challenging at times, but the Aviro Health team has been creative and supportive right throughout keeping progress on track." ~ Annoesjka Swart (MIC Lead)

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For South Africa's healthcare industry, an important and necessary tool has been added to the ever growing collection of digital resources available to clinicians. The nation's benchmark for medical knowledge, the South African Medicine Formulary (SAMF) was digitized and designed into an online app. Now healthcare workers can access medicine related information on the cellphones with an easy to use, beautifully designed and intuitive representation of all the knowledge held in the traditional SAMF book publication.

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The SAMF is a dependable source of information that offers current, trustworthy, unbiased, and elevated information on medicine. It has established itself as a standard in medical reference books for practitioners. The SAMF app and web portal were created in 2021 by Aviro Health in collaboration with the Medicines Information Centre at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and The South African Medicine Formulary. The goal was to extend the reach of SAMF outside South Africa and to ensure that the SAMF remains up to date and relevant within the world's growing health tech advancements. 

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For clinicians, the book — which has been available in hard copy for more than three decades — is a standard source of truth. It includes extensive explanations of the uses and limitations of various medications, as well as the dosage needed for various patients. It is packed with medical information that has been vetted and certified so clinicians can trust it.

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The development of the SAMF app has enhanced the availability of medical information without reducing the quality of this information. Similarly to the book, the app and website are separated into sections, and each area offers in-depth details and recommendations on how to handle ailments like TB, hypertension, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and even how to handle situations of poisoning. Additionally, the resource includes comprehensive details on how to assist practitioners in prescribing safely in particular high-risk categories, such as children, as well as in patients with liver and renal failure. The app also has a cutting-edge voice search function, where consumers can speak directly into a built-in microphone to request the information they require. 

By partnering with Aviro Health, we were able to bring the wealth of expertise we have to designing digital health technology.  At Aviro we develop digital solutions to raise the standard of healthcare by using a human-centered approach at the nexus of medicine, design and technology. Our focus is on building products that support and help healthcare practitioners to deliver better patient care. With Aviro on board, the SAMF team could be confident that their app would not only be well designed, robust and reliable but would also have a significant positive impact on the health industry because our solutions are thoroughly evaluated in real-world settings from beginning to end. 

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On June 22nd, 2022 the SAMF digital platform was officially launched and introduced to the world on the Apple App Store as well as the Google PlayStore. 

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Aviro Health CEO, Dr Musaed Abrahams participated in a webinar to talk about the SAMF and its digital offerings. Also present and participating in the panel discussion were Professor Marc Blockman from the UCT Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Annoesjka Swart form the UCT Medicines Information Centre, Diane Smith from the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and Rephaim Mpofu from the UCT Division of Clinical Pharmacology. 

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We are proud to have been part of this successful launch and we take pride in being able to design and build products that support and help healthcare practitioners to do their jobs with ease and deliver better patient care.

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To download the SAMF app follow this link to the Google Store and this one to the Apple Store.

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