In the Philippines the Digital Health team from KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV) has started enrolling patients for 99DOTS: the first of all grantees of the TB REACH project. 99DOTS is an mHealth system that empowers patients to accurately report their daily treatment adherence from the comfort of their own home. TB medication blister packs are repackaged in a low-cost, custom cardstock sleeve with a series of unpredictable hidden toll-free phone numbers that are revealed each time a patient takes their daily pill dose. The patient calls or texts (SMS) this number and their daily adherence is automatically logged on a secure dashboard accessible to their health care provider. This enables health care workers to target resources to patients most in need of support and also provides accurate, real-time adherence data to national programs for analysis and creation of improved patient approaches. KNCV has trained health care workers especially for this project and has now handed out the first 99DOTS sleeves to patients.
Digital adherence technologies are a key focus for KNCV and our Digital Solutions team is committed to supporting country efforts to implement them. The digital adherence interventions in the Philippines and Tanzania are financed by grants from the Stop TB Partnership’s funding mechanism, TB REACH and reflect the growing global push towards the use of digital health technologies to enhance treatment outcomes.