How Pelebox Aims To Help South Africans Get Their Chronic Medication. In South Africa, a patient’s experience tends to be one of long waiting times, usually 3 hours on average. This may lead cause poor health outcomes and strain on the patients in terms of transport costs and loss of income. Having to take time off work to travel to the clinic is already an inconvenience but adding this with long queues makes the experience unbearable. This is an issue that Pelebox aims to solve with the Pelebox Smart Lockers.
Pelebox is a digital platform that manages various internet enabled smart lockers which enable patients to collect their chronic medication in under 2 minutes. It’s an innovation that leverages the power of technology to improve service delivery. These smart lockers can be placed in various locations such as shopping malls or at partner retail stores.
The company was founded in 2016 by Neo Hutiri after he experienced similar circumstances at his local clinic in Bophelong, Vanderbijlpark when he was collecting his TB medication. He had to wait over 3 hours just to receive his medication, this took time away from his schedule, and most people had to miss work just to get their medication. “We then started being curious about what can be done and how we can play an active role in solving this challenge. Our journey started with visiting clinics and really paying attention to why this problem persists.” he said in a statement on the company’s website.
The process of collecting the medication is as follows:
A patient is enrolled into the local clinic’s collection program,
They are issued with a 6 month prescription for chronic medication,
Pre-packaged medication is loaded into the pelebox smart locker,
The system sends a patient an OTP (one time pin) via SMS,
The patient arrives to collect medication at their self service pelebox smart locker,
Enters their cell phone number together with their OTP for confirmation,
A cubicle with their medication opens for collection.
Disrupting the norm, redefining the status quo and thinking outside the box have become popular in the tech space. In complex countries like South Africa, riddled with limitations and constraints, disruption alone isn’t enough. Designing technology without considering this local context will result in failure. As technology visionaries and designers, the company embraces the local challenges found in South Africa as an opportunity to induce creativity and shape their frugal, relevant and context driven innovations.
