MedGuard - Medicine Verification App for Rwanda
Oshingbesan Ademola
MedGuard — Medicine Verification App
Overview
Translating Rwanda's pharmaceutical traceability standards into a practical verification tool that anyone can use.
MedGuard is a GTIN-compliant mobile application that allows point-of-sale verification and reporting of pharmaceutical products in Rwanda, supporting sourcing of medicines only from verified pharmacies. It was designed and built as a capstone project, taking on both the design and engineering responsibilities from concept to deployed MVP.
The project addressed a gap that existed despite regulatory progress: Rwanda's RFDA had introduced pharmaceutical traceability standards using GS1 DataMatrix barcodes, but the existing verification tools were PDF spreadsheets designed for oversight bodies not everyday consumers, pharmacists, or community health workers.
The problem
1 in 10 medicines in low-income markets is substandard or falsified and the last mile of verification was completely unaddressed..
The WHO estimates that 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries may be substandard or falsified, contributing to treatment failures and the acceleration of antimicrobial resistance — projected to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050. In Rwanda, substandard antibiotics had been identified as a national public health concern.
The critical gap was at the community level: consumers and frontline healthcare workers had no practical tool to verify medicines in real-time at the point of purchase. Regulatory datasets existed but weren't accessible to the people who needed them most.
"The tools that existed were designed for regulatory oversight, not for a pharmacist in Kigali trying to confirm whether a shipment of antibiotics was legitimate."
The solution
MedGuard was designed as a GTIN-compliant mobile application that allows point-of-sale verification and reporting of pharmaceutical products in Rwanda and supports sourcing medicines only from verified pharmacies.
The MVP focused on three core capabilities:
1. Instant Medicine Verification
Users can scan GS1 barcodes or manually enter GTIN identifiers to verify a medicine's registration status. The system retrieves and displays key regulatory information, including:
Product name
Manufacturer details
Registration validity
Expiry information
*This allows users to confirm whether a medicine is legitimate before using or purchasing it.*
2. Offline-First Verification
Because connectivity is inconsistent in many areas, the system was designed with an offline-first architecture. Medicine datasets are cached locally on the device using a lightweight database, allowing verification to occur even without internet access.
When connectivity becomes available, the application synchronizes with cloud databases to update records.
*This ensures reliable functionality across both urban and rural environments.*
3. Structured Reporting of Suspicious Medicines
When a medicine cannot be verified, users can submit a report directly through the app.
Reports include:
Photo evidence
GPS location
Batch and expiry information
Product identifier (GTIN)
*This structured reporting system creates actionable data that can support regulatory monitoring and investigation.*
Admin Dashboard - Supporting Regulatory Oversight
While the mobile app focuses on empowering citizens and healthcare workers, regulators also require tools to monitor reports and maintain the medicine registry.
Outcomes
Offline: Verifies medicines with zero connectivity required
< 5s: Scan-to-verification response time in testing
GTIN: Fully GS1 and RFDA-compliant architecture
Skills: Mobile App Design · System Architecture · Offline-First · UX Design · Healthtech · GTIN / GS1
FULL CASE STUDY : HERE
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Posted Jun 3, 2026
Designed a GTIN-compliant mobile app for point-of-sale verification of pharmaceutical products in Rwanda, supporting sourcing from verified pharmacies only.
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Timeline
Aug 1, 2025 - Nov 30, 2025
