Adherence to treatment regimes is a crucial factor in ensuring that anti-retroviral medications and tuberculosis therapy are effective. Unfortunately, insuffient adherence or non-compliance - that is irregular taking of medications, or none at all when symptoms disappear - is common in HIV/AIDS and TB patients. This leads to treatment failure, morbidity and the development of drug resistance.
To address this very problem, there are countless pilot projects and exploratory studies that are testing the role of text message-based reminder systems to improve drug-taking compliance amongst HIV/AIDS and TB patients. The hope is to push for large scale behavior change - a daunting and challenging task in and of itself, with or without technology. One of the key prerequisites for success is to understand cultural promoters and barriers of behavior change.
This research slidecast is a brief look at participatory research involving HIV/AIDs patients in Peru and their preferences for such a text message reminder system. Dr. Curioso and colleagues from the University of Washington and Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia presented the study at the American Medical Informatics Association Symposium in 2009.
Curioso WH, Quistberg DA, Cabello R, Gozzer E, Garcia PJ, Holmes KK, Kurth AE. "It´s time for your life": How should we remind patients to take medicines using short text messages? AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2009; pgs 129-133. Full text available here (PDF)
The Case for mHealth in Developing Countries data sheet 2694 Views
Author:
Patricia N. Mechael
Publication Date:
Jan 2009
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to encourage reflection and discussion around the potential of mHealth in developing countries and to consider how early experiences can inform the way forward. Toward this aim, I synthesize many reviews and presentations from the eight years I have been studying the evolution of mobile phones and health in developing countries. I include observations and discussions that are now shaping the creation of mHealth as a field, to highlight the ingredients we need to move from a series of pilot projects and isolated business opportunities to a full-scale maximization of health-related benefits.
I begin by reviewing the strategic priorities within global health, where mobile telephony can have the greatest impact, along with organic health-related uses of mobile phones, and examples of formal mHealth interventions. I then demonstrate the potential for mobile phones to become an extension and an integral component of eHealth, describing how information and communication technology (ICT) can be used in health care, as well as mHealth, as a subset of mServices: using mobile devices to deliver services such as banking and health. I also show how trends and interests are converging among key stakeholders within the mHealth ecosystem, thus forming a foundation on which we can scale up and sustain more and better mHealth activities. Finally, I present some tactical guidance for a way forward that will further the objectives of both public health and business, particularly in outreach efforts to emerging markets, the bottom of the pyramid, and the next billion mobile phone subscribers.
The numbers should speak for themselves. In 2006, there were 9.2 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases and 1.7 million TB deaths. Of these cases, 5.3% were a tough strain of TB that is resistant to treatment (known as MDR-TB, or multiple drug resistant tuberculosis). The total cost of TB control programs in high burden countries is estimated to be about $2.3 billion in 2008. A team of students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has come up with an innovative response to this problem that uses mobile phones as both a reporting mechanism and incentive program.
