Experiences from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Viet Nam
Implementation research studies supported by TDR’s Impact Grants for Regional Priorities are investigating a range of virtual and mobile health tools and services. These include smart phone applications (apps) to encourage and track medicines adherence by patients, and e-learning and e-health platforms that help healthcare professionals in remote areas easily exchange diagnosis and treatment information with their peers so as to give timely and precise treatment.
The research was carried by teams from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Each of the studies involves healthcare professionals interacting with a digital tool aimed at helping improve quality of care and boosting the health system’s efficiency. Study findings offer expertise, tools and proof of concept for e-health approaches that can be shared with public health teams in other countries.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Virtual healthcare platform
The research team from the Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur Universitaire et de la Recherche Scientifique in Kinshasa has designed a web-based medical decision support system – the Virtual Community of Healthcare Facilities (VHCF) – to improve communication and information sharing for malaria treatment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The platform is now ready as a prototype; it links healthcare professionals to resources that will help them improve the quality of malaria diagnosis and treatment. In future, the aim is to link doctors and healthcare facilities across the country via the platform. The platform also has the potential to be used for diseases other than malaria.
Malaysia: Developers’ platform for smartphone apps for tuberculosis (TB) medicines adherence
Among infectious diseases, TB has been responsible for the highest incidence of death in Malaysia over the past 30 years. Despite implementation of the WHO-recommended DOTS (Directly observed treatment, short-course) control strategy, TB cases have continued to rise. Lack of adherence to medicine regimens by TB patients is reported as a primary cause for this rise.
The research study looked at how gamified mobile phone apps can be used in Malaysia as effective tools to engage patients and encourage better adherence to drug regimens for TB treatment – and so create a culture of patient self-management.
The project was based on detailed interaction between researchers from the Department of Public Health Medicine at the Universiti Teknologi MARA working with a team of digital specialists and mobile games developers, with input from TB patients. This collaboration resulted in the creation of the technical framework and architecture needed to develop mobile phone apps for TB. Developers in Malaysia can now use this environment to develop a range of tools for patient engagement and adherence tracking.
The research team states that such gamified smartphone apps have the potential to improve TB adherence across the Asian region (with its population of high-mobility, digitally-connected individuals of working age). The approach and the team’s learning from this project can also improve patient engagement for the management of other diseases.
Nigeria: Mobile phone messaging services to improve isoniazid preventive therapy adherence
This research, by a team led by the African Institute for Health Policy & Health Systems at Ebonyi State University (EBSU) in Nigeria, assessed how mobile phone messaging services can improve adherence to isoniazid preventive treatment by HIV patients to protect them from contracting TB.
People infected with HIV are at increased risk of developing TB, and isoniazid preventive therapy can be effective in reducing TB incidence in this population. The project studied the effect of mobile phone messaging services on health workers’ awareness of therapy guidelines and on patients’ knowledge and adherence to isoniazid treatment.
Based on data from the study participants, the research team concluded that health workers’ awareness of guidelines had improved, and patients were also more knowledgeable about the benefits of isoniazid therapy. The team advise that health services should consider including mobile phone reminders in national guidelines for TB prevention in HIV patients.
Philippines: Mobile phone apps to improve the quality of TB-DOTS reporting
Researchers at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines did a feasibility study on the potential of using mobile phone apps to help improve the quality of reporting by private physicians to the TB-DOTS programme. The team was also interested in how such a digital tool can be used in similar applications in the healthcare system to improve information sharing between stakeholders.
Philippines: Telehealth tools and services to train healthcare workers
The TeleRPOID e-health research project run by the Philippines Leprosy Mission is evaluating how telehealth tools and services can be used to train healthcare workers and people with disabilities. The primary foci of this study are rehabilitation and the prevention of impairments and disabilities related to leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, diabetes, pressure ulcers, and other chronic wounds.
VIRTUAL HEALTH CARE AND E-HEALTH PROJECTS FUNDED BY TDR’S IMPACT GRANTS FOR REGIONAL PRIORITIES
Virtual Community of Healthcare Facilities (VCHF): Optimization of Malaria Treatment (OMAT)
Eustache MUTEBA AYUMBA
Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur Universitaire et de la Recherche Scientifique, Kinshasa
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (2018)
Implementation and economic evaluation of a gamified mobile apps tool for improved treatment adherence among working-aged TB patients in Malaysia
Nurhuda ISMAIL
Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA
MALAYSIA (2019)
Effect of m-health technology on knowledge and adherence to isoniazid preventive therapy in HIV clinics in Ebonyi State
Ifeyinwa Chizoba AKAMIKE
African Institute for Health Policy & Health Systems, Ebonyi State University (EBSU) and Department of Community Medicine, Federal Teaching, Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA), Ebonyi State, Abakaliki
NIGERIA (2019)
Evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of an electronic mobile device-based application among private physicians in improving the reporting system to the TB DOTS program
Jemelyn GARCIA
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine
PHILIPPINES (2015)
TeleRPOID e-health project: Philippines Leprosy Mission. Feasibility of telehealth for training health care workers and persons with disability on integrated rehabilitation and prevention of impairments and disabilities of leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, diabetes, pressure ulcers, and other chronic wounds
Gerardo TURDANES
Philippines Leprosy Mission
PHILIPPINES (2020)
Application of mobile phone app to alert users to the risk of dengue fever
Diep Tran Bich NGUYEN
National Institute for Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology, Ministry of Health
VIET NAM (2020)
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
For more information on the Impact Grants programme, please contact Dr Garry Aslanyan
