South Korean telecommunication firm, KT has launched a contagion or epidemic prevention app in Ghana that alerts users of diseases in their vicinity. Named the Global Epidemic Prevention Platform, or GEPP, the company and West African country have been working to deploy the app since November last year.
KT first proposed that telcos around the world could share data to prevent contagions in 2016. In the same year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN to build a big data system for use in global contagion prevention. Ghanaians can download the app which offers services called GEPP Public, GEPP Clinic, and GEPP Gov.
With GEPP Public, Ghana will register contagions when they are prevalent locally or abroad in certain areas and those visiting will get an alert to notify them.
GEPP Clinic will allow Ghanaians to report their symptoms to health centres in real-time and provide information and locations of nearby clinics.
GEPP Gov collects data from GEPP Public and GEPP Clinic and allows the government to monitor contagion progression. KT will later add health declaration feature to the app for arrivals to the country so that the government can more conveniently store data.
At the GEPP Ghana launch ceremony, KT gave a briefing on the platform produced by the Korean-Ghanaian public-private partnership, the big data-based quality health information service to benefit Ghanaians and the Ghanaian government’s enhanced capacity for epidemic preparedness.
“We are pleased that the Ghanaian people will receive high-quality health services provided by big data on health and communications technologies,” said Lee Dong-Myun, the president of KT’s Future Platform Business Group.
Lee also said that KT would continue to explore new ways to use its varied technologies and capabilities in international collaborative projects that address global human welfare.
KT and Ghana are hoping that the app will allow better reactions to Ebola, cholera and malaria that are rampant in the region. The telco is also working with its Kenyan counterpart Safaricom to roll out a similar service.
