SMS reminders

Designing SMS Reminders for HIV/AIDS Patients in Peru

Posted by MohiniBhavsar on Apr 22, 2011

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)

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Designing SMS Reminders for HIV/AIDS Patients in Peru data sheet 2645 Views
Countries: Peru

Mobile Reminders for Urban Sex Workers in India

Posted by admin on Feb 25, 2011

This guest post was written by Nithya Sambasivan, a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. A link to the complete paper (PDF) is here.

I spent a total of three months last summer conducting an ethnographically-inspired study of urban sex workers (USWs), where we designed, implemented and evaluated a phone-based broadcasting system for urban sex workers.   I "hung out" at the solicitation locations and the drop-in shelters of Pragati, called Swati Manne. These Swati Mannes were not only places to rest for the USWs, with beds and TVs, but they also included a medical clinic and a payment area for MFI loans. The internship project was with Microsoft Research India. None of the interviews were audio-recorded. Only hand-written notes were taken.

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Mobile Reminders for Urban Sex Workers in India data sheet 22716 Views
Countries: India

Project Masiluleke: Comprehensive HIV Care With Mobiles

Posted by MohiniBhavsar on Nov 24, 2010

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Project Masiluleke: Comprehensive HIV Care With Mobiles data sheet 4260 Views

Over 5 million people in South Africa are living with HIV and the country has the highest burden of TB-HIV co-infection. TB treatment completion and cure rates fall below 50% in almost half of the districts. Project Masiluleke, Zulu for to give wise counsel or lend a helping hand, stepped up to the challenge and is using mobiles to provide end-to-end care through awareness, testing, and ensuring treatment compliance.

Monopolizing on the 90% of South Africans who own mobile phones, the iTEACH team -- with collaborators from Pop!Tech, The Praekelt Foundation, and Frog Design -- brought HIV awareness to the masses and improved treatment compliance through the use of text messaging. Social stigma towards those carrying the disease results in low rates of HIV testing, and an overburdened public health system discourages people from utilizing available services at local clinics.

Basic Information
Website URL: 
http://www.iteachsouthafrica.o...
Organization involved in the project?: 
iTeach South Africa
Project goals: 

iTEACH identified four links in a chain of care essential for HIV and TB treatment success: [1] Effective awareness, [2] Scale-up of early HIV testing, [3] Early anti-retro viral treatment (ART) initiation, and [4] Support for ART and TB treatment adherence. In October 2007, Project ‘Masiluleke’ (Zulu for ‘to give wise counsel’ or ‘lend a helping hand’) or ‘Project M’, was launched to address these challenges with a chain of interventions designed for replication and scale. Project M is a collaborative effort, lead by the iTEACH NGO, along with a diverse set of partners (The Praekelt Foundation, Frog Design, Pop!Tech, MTN and Vodacom, LifeLine Southern Africa, Ghetto Ruff Records and the National Geographic Society).

Brief description of the project: 

Briefly, each of the three components of Project M addressed a specific barrier for people seeking care and for health care workers managing care.

1. TxtAlert: Reminders for HIV clinic appointments were sent to patients’ mobile phones as text messages. Showing up to your HIV clinic appointment largely correlates with anti-retro viral treatment (ART) adherence. In June 2007, TxtAlert, an SMS-based automated ART clinic appointment reminder system was piloted in partnership with Right to Care at the Themba Lethu Clinic, the largest privately funded ART treatment site in South Africa. TxtAlert is a web service that is linked to the electronic medical record system.

Clinic appointment reminders are sent to patients who are receiving ARVs, both two weeks and one day before their scheduled appointments. Text messages are also sent one day after the appointment to either thank the patient for coming or to alert them of a missed appointment and encourage rescheduling.

2. SocialTxt: A mass mobile messaging campaign was launched to raise HIV awareness, and directed people to the National AIDS Helpline. In October 2007, a mass text message HIV awareness campaign was launched with the so-called SocialTxt technology developed by the Praekelt Foundation.

One million text messages were sent everyday to mobile phone users throughout South Africa that contained key information about HIV and TB and directed mobile phone users to a free National AIDS Helpline.

The campaign resulted in an impressive 300% increase in calls to the helpline, from 1000 calls a day to 3000-4000 calls a day. Since the project launch, over 685 million PCM messages were sent to the helpline. Upon receiving the PCM message, staff at the helpline, who are HIV patients themselves, offer counseling and direct callers to HIV and TB testing centers.

3. HIV Self-Test Kit: Currently in development is a home-based HIV test kit that has the option of calling the National AIDS Hotline for guidance and assistance. The hope is that this kit will enable South Africans to perform an HIV test, in the privacy of their own homes, with the option of calling a counselor at the National AIDS Helpline via cell phone.

Target audience: 

Project M is being piloted in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), which is the South African province with the highest HIV burden and poorest TB treatment outcomes. The project will be managed from Edendale Hospital, which is located in one of the hardest hit districts in KZN (Umgungundlovu) where 60% of pregnant women test HIV+ and 200 new cases of TB are registered every month. Edendale serves an exclusively Zulu population of 1 million persons, where unemployment is estimated at 60% and most are living in abject poverty.

Edendale was selected specifically because it is replete with challenges faced by large government hospitals at the epicenter of the HIV and TB crisis. Success in this setting would suggest that replication and scale-up in similar underserved communities is feasible.

Detailed Information
Mobile Tools Used: 
TxtAlert
Length of Project (in months) : 
3
Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

1. TxtAlert: HIV/AIDS Clinic Apppointment Reminders

  • 80-90% opt-in rate was observed at the clinics.
  • Patients started to rely on TxtAlert reminders so much so they were less likely to switch their mobile phone number.
  • Patients started to interact with TxtAlert system via "Please Call Me" messages to reschedule their appointments in advance.
  • Patients currently on ARVs at the pilot site assisted in encouraging patients to opt-in for the SMS alerts.

2. SocialTxt: Mass mobile campaign to raise HIV awareness and direct people to the National AIDS Helpline

  • iTEACH offered relevant clinical and cultural expertise for the content of the SocialTxt SMS messages.
  • The project increased the number of calls by 300% to the National AIDS Helpline.
  • It leveraged the massive uptake of "Please Call Me" messages in South Africa for a large public health messaging campaign at no cost to people.

3. HIV Self-Test Kit, with option of calling via mobile phone to the Helpline

  • Focus group discussions revealed people prefer telephone interactions to seek counseling and HIV testing support, as opposed to in-person consultations.
  • Mobile phones address the issue of perceived stigmatization at clinics, which deters people from getting tested.

 

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

1. TxtAlert: HIV/AIDS Clinic Apppointment Reminders

  • The process of collecting and registering numbers of patients was tedious, though outcomes show it was well worth it. This process took about 3 months.
  • There is a need to confirm at each appointment that the patient's number is the same as that listed on their system. Many people switch between 2-3 SIM cards.

2. SocialTxt: Mass mobile campaign to raise HIV awareness and direct people to the National AIDS Helpline

  • There are challenges in securing mobile operator support, though this changed once a profitable business case was demonstrated.
  • Counselers at the helpline need more training to deal with the increased volume in calls and to ensure the quality of service is not compromised.
  • The service needs to have increased coverage during evenings and weekend.
  • Counselers need better knowledge of local resources to make effective referrals.
  • A toll-free line is needed so mobile phone users can call without charge. The Helpline is toll-free only if calls are made via landlines.

 



 




  
The Mobile Minute: Opera's State of the Mobile Web, California's Mobile Alert System, and Installing a Mobile Analytics Service


Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on Sep 01, 2010


Today's Mobile Minute brings you news on the state of the mobile web, California's plan to be the first state with a mass mobile alert system, Cisco's (rumored) move to buy Skype, a guide to installing PercentMobile on different platforms, and results from a study on the effects of SMS reminders for taking birth control pills. 

    

            

                            

        







 

        
      
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