Maseru, May. 06 – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will launch the integrated electronic Standard Treatment Guidelines Application (IeSTG App) for HIV/AIDS in Maseru on Wednesday.

The application is designed to optimise treatment outcomes and improve regulatory and supply chain processes in Malawi and Lesotho, a press release issued by SADC Secretariat in Gaborone Botswana has said.

This application is meant to bring convenience to health care workers by improving ease of access to information, by offering several advantages through consistency in practice to the patients, resulting in better treatment efficacy.

In addition, the release further shows that this will also empower service providers the quality of care standard as it is based on expert consensus and form the basis for monitoring, this will further ensure capacitation with a standardised regimen which makes it easier to manage stocks and allows for pre-packaging of patient medicine packs for supply chain managers.

In the case of HIV and AIDS, the application will help to facilitate electronic updates of standard treatment guidelines as scientific advances are made, making it useful to have them in an electronic format rather than hard copies which are rendered obsolete as soon as new updated guidelines are in place.              

The IeSTG is said to have been developed by Mitch Investments with a grant from the European Union (EU) through SADC under the Support to Industrialization and Productive Sectors (SIPS) Project.

SADC was established in 1980 with the aim to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient, productive systems, deeper cooperation and emerging as a competitive and effective player in international relations and the world economy.