African Inventor of the Month – Neo Hutiri – Pelebox Smart Locker

Neo Hutiri is a South African engineer who invented the Pelebox Smart Locker system. He holds a BSc. in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Engineering from Wits. Hutiri served previously as an automation engineer at ArcelorMittal SA before building his start-up company that would eventually build the smart locker.

A Personal Experience

When Neo Hutiri was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2014, he realized he had to wait up to three hours on each hospital visit just to get his medication. Neo would normally be in the same waiting area as patients with chronic illness all waiting to collect their drugs. Some of these were cancer patients, while others were diagnosed with AIDS and needed regular antiretroviral therapy.

Soon, the African inventor realised that the problem he faced was only a microcosm of a greater national crisis in the country; South Africa had the largest antiretroviral therapy in the world, with 4.5 million patients relying on antiretroviral therapy each month. Spending three to four hours during each visit cost too much time for patients who needed help quickly.

“It dawned on me that patients are spending a lot of time – 4.3m man hours in total every month – just waiting in queues. So my initial hypothesis was to take patients’ waiting time from three hours to under two minutes,” Hutiri said. The South African wondered if there wasn’t a way to leverage technology to cut down these waiting hours. The result was a ‘fast’ box.

The ‘fast’ box

The Pelebox Smart Locker is a self-service kiosk that is stocked with medication and accessible with a one-time pin code. Health officials scan a patient’s file into a small cubicle and stock it with medication from a doctor’s prescription. An alert is sent to the patient’s phone indicating the cubicle number as well as a one-time code that allows the patient to open said cubicle.

Neo Hutiri’s main goal was developing a system that fast-tracked the collection process. Translated from Setswana as fast-box, the Pelebox Smart Locker cut down a three-hour wait to under two minutes; the instant pin-activation process takes a mere 36 seconds in most cases.

Stakeholder support

Once Hutiri pitched his idea, the South African pharmaceutical council decided to trial the Pelebox. The council was worried about mixed medications that could lead to fatal outcomes. Neo Hutiri had to test his product in real-life situations outside the lab. The trial saw 4,700 medications dispensed in Pretoria with a 100% success rate.

The success led to a contract with the department of health, and Hutiri was contracted to roll out the Pelebox Smart Locker in eight provinces in South Africa.

So far, the Pelebox is only available for medication related to chronic illnesses. Each prescription costs $0.6 to collect from the Pelebox, a fee so low the department of health takes care of the tab.

Technovera: Innovation in Healthcare

Neo Hutiri founded Technovera to pursue his dream of making medication more accessible to those who need them most. Technovera focuses on building smart solutions to everyday South African problems.

Technovera and the Pelebox were nurtured within an ecosystem designed to disrupt the status quo. His idea was incubated at the Impact Hub. “The Innovation Hub was one of our biggest supporting stakeholders, primarily because their mandate is to support the propulsion of innovation that’s South African,” the South African inventor said.

Pelebox also received guidance and support from the Aurum Institute, a health-focused non-governmental organisation. The partnership with Aurum allowed Hutiri to explore more opportunities in different spaces. Their support meant the Pelebox Smart Locker could scale in order to provide better service to more patients.

Royal Academy of Engineering Award

Neo Hutiri’s social enterprise has not gone unnoticed. Not only is he working with major stakeholders within the healthcare industry in South Africa, the engineer has received awards for his brilliant innovation. The Pelebox Smart Locker won the 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. Neo Hutiri received GBP 25,000 for his efforts, and he intends to use the money to finance an assembly unit to build more smart lockers.