SMS for Life is a project to track the supply levels of malaria medication in hospitals and clinics in Africa. Health workers send weekly text messages to report on their supply levels, and the data is collected and displayed on a map. District medical officers can then view up-to-date status of facilities in their district, and use the information to make forecasts and plan shipments.
SMS for Life is an initiative of the Roll Back Malaria partnership, which has more information on the project at their website.
Because first-line malaria medication is needed within the first 24 to 48 hours after symptoms to save the lives of children under 5, and stock-outs are such a common problem, up-to-date information on supply levels is critical.
One component of SMS for Life is the Map Viewer, which displays the supply level data on a map. The Map Viewer is a Python application running on Google App Engine, using the Google Maps API.
The SMS for Life Map Viewer is open source, under the Apache 2.0 license.
Download: smsforlife-2010-02-05T22-13-03Z.tar.gz