Transcript
IRENE YEE CHIEF: We realised that because we have 300 islands, to travel is a very expensive way of communicating, so since a lot of people have phones we thought, well, people could use the phones to self-regulate their health and before they even go to the medical centres. So this is not an app where you replace the doctor or the dietitian but an idea of what you're eating and the portions that you're eating and we're focusing on what they call 'my healthy plate' which gives you an idea of the health foods that you eat, the protein and the carbohydrates. The intention is to eat balanced meals.
SALLY ROUND: How far is this being rolled out?
IYC: We had an event, as part of our health symposium where the Ministry of Health and Medical Services promoted the app. We had a series for about 50 dietitians who had an opportunity to practice on the apps and they will be taking that to their medical centres or wherever they work to be able to work with the people and offer people the opportunity to utilise the app for their own health.
SR: And how do you think this is going to go. What sort of feedback have you had?
IYC: We've had a good response right now because it's not focused on calories. What we use is the World Health Organisation measure of using a fist, a palm and a thumb. In that way the people of Fiji are able to roughly measure the portion of carbohydrates they are eating based on their input of the food that they're taking in. So we think that there's going to be a good number of people who are going to use it for their own health.
SR: How far afield? Remote islands?
IYC: We've developed a little gadget called the raspberrypi where we're able to connect it to solar so that we can disseminate the app for other people to use.
SR: How does that work?
IYC: The national food people will be able to take the raspberrypi, use the solar panel out there and be able to just use that as a computer to disseminate the app and people can use the information.
SR: What are the health issues that really you're trying to aim at here?
IYC: We're focusing on non-communicable diseases but it can be worked on to target the diseases that the Ministry of Health wants to focus on.
SR: Has anything been done like this elsewhere in the Pacific island region?
IYC: Not that we know of. This is the first initiative. We're looking at what is happening in Fiji and we're intending to go to some countries, one at a time, or a group at a time, depending on funding and also depending on the need.