Investigation of the Practices, Legislation, Supply Chain, and Regulation of Opioids for Clinical Pain Management in Southern Africa: A Multi-sectoral, Cross-National, Mixed Methods Study.

Context: Sub-Saharan Africa faces an increasing incidence and prevalence of life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. These conditions are associated with a significant burden of pain linked to high morbidity and disability that is poorly assessed and undertreated. Barriers to effective pain management partly relate to lack of access to opioid analgesia and challenges in their administration.

Strengthening pharmaceutical systems for palliative care services in resource limited settings: piloting a mHealth application across a rural and urban setting in Uganda.

Background: Medicine availability is improving in sub-Saharan Africa for palliative care services. There is a need to develop strong and sustainable pharmaceutical systems to enhance the proper management of palliative care medicines, some of which are controlled. One approach to addressing these needs is the use of mobile technology to support data capture, storage and retrieval.