Creating a rapid and scalable response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

When the Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) realised that there was a testing shortfall for COVID-19 in March this year, the organisation looked to create a solution that would be suitable for rapid production and rollout in South Africa.

The CPGR has since developed a testing solution to help identify COVID-19 infections through its commercial entity, Artisan Biomed.

To find the right ICT partner for this project, the CPGR turned to long-standing technology supporter Microsoft to find a suitable match within the Microsoft partner ecosystem. The Microsoft 4Afrika team introduced CPGR to Thasa Technologies, whose product, Chiron One Cloud Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) – with its basis in Microsoft Azure – offered a secure and scalable platform. Chiron One aggregates and distributes lab test results in a cloud-based manner, meaning that reporting of results to other labs or doctors is fast and secure.

Following implementation, Artisan Biomed has used the LIMS to connect with partner facilities, such as HamidiLab and many hospitals across South Africa. Using Thasa Technologies, Chiron LIMS has allowed Artisan Biomed to deploy COVID-19 testing solutions in a rapid and secure fashion, across South Africa and with potential to scale across Africa by leveraging its cloud technology.

Microsoft, through its 4Afrika initiative, first partnered with the CPGR in 2018, when they embarked on a joint project bringing together the intelligent cloud and genomics research to create a scalable, cost-effective technology platform to power advanced medical analysis and research. This platform is enabled by Microsoft Azure and allows African scientists to perform and collaborate on ground-breaking genomics research.

To boost the development of scalable COVID-19 testing, Microsoft supported the pilot implementation as well as project planning and execution. The results were a successful pilot and technical validation within two weeks, followed by a rapid production rollout to support the emergency testing shortfall in the Western Cape, which is one of South Africa’s primary hotspots for COVID-19 cases.

“The long-term relationship with Microsoft 4Afrika has been beneficial to CPGR in a number of ways. Firstly, we get access to a scalable and cost-effective cloud solution that allows the generation, analysis and storage of data in South Africa. Secondly, we have derived in-kind support to pilot and test a number of technical solutions, for example in support of COVID-19 testing and thirdly, working with Microsoft 4Afrika provides access to an entire ecosystem of solutions and companies who effectively use the MS Azure cloud platform, in turn adding value to our customers and partners”, said Judith Hornby, Managing Director, CPGR.

Ryno Rijnsburger, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft 4Afrika, said: “Microsoft 4Afrika regards the work that CPGR is doing as vital to expanding our understanding of complex medical issues and we are proud to expand our partnership with them to advance the cutting-edge use of technology in healthcare in a way that will ultimately benefit countries across Africa.”