Mobile Health Intervention for Active Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a top ten leading cause of death globally despite it being a largely curable disease. New effective treatment supervision strategies are needed particularly in low-resource high TB burden settings and a potential solution is in the hands of nearly every patient - a mobile phone. Modern modular design mobile phone software applications ("apps") hold great promise to address this unmet need.

Current technologies allows for rapid design modification based on end user needs, implementation of native operating system (e.g., Android) versions for users with inconsistent internet access, and the integration of the patients' experiences with electronic health records using industry standards. Apps can perform multiple functions (e.g., automated reminders, symptom tracking, secure messaging, multi-media education). To date, few TB related apps have focused on patients as users, and none support patient engagement in self-management of their care or direct adherence monitoring. The research objectives are to understand end user needs and other stakeholder needs to build, refine, and pilot test an app to support patients self-administering treatment for active TB.

Inclusion criteria

• Subject is starting TB treatment for the first time
• Subject has no known TB drug resistance
• Subject is HIV negative (self-reported or documented)
• Subject owns or has regular access to a mobile phone that can access the Internet and is able to operate the mobile phone to communicate or have someone able to assist.

Exclusion criteria

• Severely ill (i.e., requiring hospitalization)
• Reside in the same household with another study participant
• History of known drug resistance and HIV co-infection because their care is managed separately and the treatment regimens and duration differ.