A mobile application (app) developed in Ghana has been designed to cut the response times of ambulances by up to 56% by providing accurate location details without a connection to the Internet – an essential factor for people living in areas with few or unofficial street signs and hard-to-find addresses.

The custom-made addressing system called SnooCODE Red was built by Ghanaian engineer Sesinam Dagadu, owner of technology solutions company tinyDAVID, and serves to address emergency response to severely ill Covid-19 patients.

The app can also be used to ensure that people in informal areas receive vaccinations.

Navigating in parts of Ghana and the cities, towns and villages of other developing countries is challenging, as many streets are not named, houses are not numbered and local residents use landmarks such as trees, churches or banks, to direct people.

“That becomes a problem when an ambulance has been directed to ‘the blue kiosk at the corner’, but the kiosk has been moved,” Dagadu says.

He says this means that an ambulance will then have to make follow-up calls to find their patient, wasting valuable time.

The app’s software divides regions by simple codes using numbers and letters to make it easy for anybody to communicate their location and have others just as easily navigate to them.

It works by generating a memorable six-digit alphanumeric location code using global positioning systems to pinpoint an exact location, to an accuracy of 25 cm for specialist applications.

The six-digit code remains the same for each specific location, meaning those with basic literacy levels and those without access to smartphones can easily memorise it for an emergency.

Ambulance drivers and other users can enter the code into the app and it will calculate the best route to reach that address.

ROLLOUT EXPANSION

The app is being expanded to enable emergency responders to see a list of not just the closest health centres, but also the best-equipped hospitals to handle each emergency.

This is being done with funding from the Embassy of Switzerland in Ghana and in partnership with the Emergency Medicine Society of Ghana.

SnooCODE Red has been successfully tested in Accra, Ghana, and is currently being used by ambulance services in Namibia, as well as by the Benka Life ambulance service in Cameroon.

Benka Life representative Christian Kalieu says the app enables ambulance drivers to know exactly where to find patients and get to them quickly, increasing their chances of surviving and receiving appropriate treatment.

The app is available in English, French and Portuguese and plans are under way to translate it to Arabic.

The system has been enhanced so that it can be used anywhere in Africa, South America, the Middle East and 70% of Asia.

The developers state that, because the software is not reliant on national infrastructure, and is simple enough for a pre-schooler to use, it has wide application during crises, natural disasters and disease outbreaks.