Researchers share software that helps healthcare facilities manage PPE stock

A team of researchers from ICMC-USP (Mathematical Science and Computation Institute from São Paulo University) have created a software that helps hospitals and other medical facilities manage their protective equipment stock. Personal protective equipment is essential to every facility dealing with Covid-19 patients and shortages of this equipment can greatly increase the risk of infection for healthcare professionals and other workers that might be exposed.

The software, “Estoque Seguro” (Safe Stock), can help facilities manage their stock and make sure they never run out. The program takes into account the local infection rate as well as the rate of hospitalization and is able to predict the amount of PPE that wll be necessary at every given time.

Through this system, facilities are warned when they’re about to run out of material and are also advised on how much equipment to order. When implemented in a network of several hospitals, the program can also prevent a situation in which a hospital orders excess equipment and leaves others with lack of resources available.

The software is open source and is freely available online to be use by any healthcare facilities interested. Several hospitals in Brazil have already signed up to it, with many others expressing interest.

Adapted from: https://www.uol.com.br/ecoa/ultimas-noticias/2020/06/23/com-matematica-p...