Tuesday, 9th of October, 2018. Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) in conjunction with Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), launched NimCure – a digital patient care tool to promote adherence to treatment.

Nigeria is ranked 4th globally, among the 22 high TB-burden countries. Furthermore, Multi-Drug Resistant-TB, is a major public health threat in Nigeria and a leading cause of death in HIV infection. While TB is curable, very little progress has been attained in mitigating its spread. This is mainly as a result of challenges and gaps that exist in the current system of managing treatment, which is lengthy and cumbersome. 

The NimCure app is a digital patient care tool to promote adherence to treatment by TB patients. Using the NimCure app, patients are paired with caregivers who support and manage treatment remotely. The app innovates around the current method of treatment, Direct Observe Therapy (DOT) by the use of vDOT (video Direct Observe Therapy).

With NimCure, patients are able to record short videos to log their daily dosage. Other features of the app include enabling patients to track treatment progress, receive key notifications and reminders as well as contact their caregivers. Caregivers, through the NimCure Care app, are able to monitor patient treatment including assessing video submissions, manage patient treatment progress and contact them directly.

With support from Samsung, CcHUB is providing mobile phones to patients and caregivers for the duration of the pilot. The devices will also come equipped with SIM cards and data plans.  The medical trial will commence this week with 30 patients and 6 caregivers.

The launch, which held at the NIMR complex in Yaba was attended by key stakeholders in the public and private health sector.
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Co-Creation Hub is an innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. CcHUB is Nigeria’s premier living lab designed as a space where work to catalyze creative tech ventures take place. The hub is Nigeria’s first open living lab for technologists, entrepreneurs, tech companies, investors and hackers in and around Lagos. CcHUB’s work is delivered through 6 thematic practices: Education, Fintech, Digital Security, Smart  Health & Well-being and Govlab.

Nigerian Institute of Medical Research conducts research into health problems in Nigeria with a focus on diseases of greatest public health importance in the country. NIMR was established through the National Science and Technology Act of 1977. The vision of NIMR is to be an institution of excellence in basic, applied and operational research for the promotion of national health and development in Nigeria.