Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries
Abstract Background A large fraction of anti-malaria medicines (and indeed many other medicines classes) used in developing countries are inadequately identified. Framing this problem as one of misidentification rather than the more common framing of criminal misrepresentation leads to new solutions...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c0e4e71e78e0408ba7a61f472f22322c 2023-05-15T15:13:28+02:00 Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries Crandall Ian Ahmad Aria Pennefather Peter Suhanic West 2010-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 https://doaj.org/article/c0e4e71e78e0408ba7a61f472f22322c EN eng BMC http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/214 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/c0e4e71e78e0408ba7a61f472f22322c Malaria Journal, Vol 9, Iss 1, p 214 (2010) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2010 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 2022-12-31T01:27:39Z Abstract Background A large fraction of anti-malaria medicines (and indeed many other medicines classes) used in developing countries are inadequately identified. Framing this problem as one of misidentification rather than the more common framing of criminal misrepresentation leads to new solutions sets not currently being considered. Method That reframing led to consideration and analysis of 4 new problems that informed design of a digital platform technology for delivering a distributed medicine characterization system: 1) problematic interests associated with a focus on preventing counterfeiting, 2) the complexity of the many ways that medicines can deviate from expected identities, 3) the challenge of choosing amongst a diversity of attribute characterization technologies, and 4) the need for a flexible and distributed data aggregation mechanism. Results Analysis of those new problems confirmed an initial insight that a previously described digital technology for tracking malaria tests results in infrastructure limited regions could be adapted for characterizing pill attributes. Feasibility is illustrated by describing how the platform design can be implemented using open-source software and commodity computational and communication technology readily available and supportable in developing countries. Discussion A system of this type would allow users to answer several questions. Is this medicine what it is supposed to be? Can it be used to treat locally encountered malaria? What has been the experience of others who have used pills having the same identity? Ubiquitous access to global digital telecommunication infrastructure allows the system to generate data streams from these distributed medicine characterization transactions that can be used to map global patterns of use of specifically identified medicines. This can provide feedback necessary to guide efforts to reduce the burden of malaria. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Malaria Journal 9 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Crandall Ian Ahmad Aria Pennefather Peter Suhanic West Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background A large fraction of anti-malaria medicines (and indeed many other medicines classes) used in developing countries are inadequately identified. Framing this problem as one of misidentification rather than the more common framing of criminal misrepresentation leads to new solutions sets not currently being considered. Method That reframing led to consideration and analysis of 4 new problems that informed design of a digital platform technology for delivering a distributed medicine characterization system: 1) problematic interests associated with a focus on preventing counterfeiting, 2) the complexity of the many ways that medicines can deviate from expected identities, 3) the challenge of choosing amongst a diversity of attribute characterization technologies, and 4) the need for a flexible and distributed data aggregation mechanism. Results Analysis of those new problems confirmed an initial insight that a previously described digital technology for tracking malaria tests results in infrastructure limited regions could be adapted for characterizing pill attributes. Feasibility is illustrated by describing how the platform design can be implemented using open-source software and commodity computational and communication technology readily available and supportable in developing countries. Discussion A system of this type would allow users to answer several questions. Is this medicine what it is supposed to be? Can it be used to treat locally encountered malaria? What has been the experience of others who have used pills having the same identity? Ubiquitous access to global digital telecommunication infrastructure allows the system to generate data streams from these distributed medicine characterization transactions that can be used to map global patterns of use of specifically identified medicines. This can provide feedback necessary to guide efforts to reduce the burden of malaria. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Crandall Ian Ahmad Aria Pennefather Peter Suhanic West |
author_facet |
Crandall Ian Ahmad Aria Pennefather Peter Suhanic West |
author_sort |
Crandall Ian |
title |
Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
title_short |
Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
title_full |
Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
title_fullStr |
Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
title_sort |
pill characterization data streams for reducing exposure to inadequately identified anti-malarial medication in developing countries |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 https://doaj.org/article/c0e4e71e78e0408ba7a61f472f22322c |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 9, Iss 1, p 214 (2010) |
op_relation |
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/214 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/c0e4e71e78e0408ba7a61f472f22322c |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-214 |
container_title |
Malaria Journal |
container_volume |
9 |
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1 |
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1766344026589495296 |