Tuberculosis (TB) is still the deadliest infectious disease worldwide, killing over 4.000 people every day. This is unnecessary as TB can be cured with appropriate treatment. A number of barriers however, prevent patients from recovering from this disease, including long and complicated treatment regimens that involve the daily intake of medicines over the course of 6-24 months.

Missing even a few daily doses or interrupting treatment can lead to resistance to the TB medicines and/or return of the disease later in life. Therefore, patients normally need to be observed when taking their daily medication either by visiting the health center or by a health care worker at their home.

Obviously, these supportive measures put a burden on both the patient and the health system. By leveraging today’s smart information and (mobile) communication technologies the ASCENT project (Adherence Support Coalition to End TB) aims to support TB patients with their treatment in a modern and more effective way.

By generating evidence, establishing a global market and engaging stakeholders, ASCENT aims to make future scale up possible so that these digital innovations can be available to all TB patients worldwide.