Research
The following studies will be conducted as part of the ASCENT project
Adherence Support Coalition to End TB (ASCENT): four-country evaluation of digital adherence technologies for TB treatment
Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs. In 2017, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with TB. Not adhering to treatment leads to unfavourable outcomes, relapse, drug resistance, disease transmission and increased health system costs. Innovations are therefore needed to improve TB treatment adherence. Digital adherence technologies (DAT) may be a major step forward. The aim of this study is to measure the impact of DATs for daily monitoring of adherence for adult TB patients in the Philippines, Tanzania, South Africa and Ukraine. The study will evaluate the treatment outcome of patients, comparing the intervention facilities to standard of care facilities. In addition, several sub-studies will assess the how and why the intervention may work in patients receiving treatment for both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant-TB in order to translate the successes into routine TB country programs.
http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN17706019
Adherence Support Coalition to End TB: evaluation of digital adherence technologies for TB treatment in Ethiopia
In 2017, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB). There is an urgent need to optimize the use of new and existing tools to reach the global End TB goals. Non-adherence to treatment leads to increased unfavourable outcomes, relapse, drug-resistance, disease transmission and health system costs. The implementation of digital adherence technologies (DATs) has the potential to be a patient centred approach to improve TB treatment adherence across a range of settings in order to end TB as a public health problem. Therefore, we aim to implement and evaluate the impact and contextual factors of DAT systems (medication sleeve, smart pill box) with a differentiated response to patient care, among adult pulmonary TB participants in Ethiopia.