tuber

4th Joint Call: SMART-TB

Tuberculosis (TB) remains an urgent public health threat and a leading infectious cause of death worldwide. The SMART TB project propose a novel app that will not only screen patients who are being non-adherent, but will also guide healthcare providers to identify patients’ individual problem and to deliver the recommended personalized strategies
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Background

Tuberculosis (TB) remains an urgent public health threat and a leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Despite long-term support such as directly observed treatment to help patients complete their treatment, non-adherence to TB treatment is known to be suboptimal which leads to treatment failures, poor quality of life, or development of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The reasons underlying non-adherence are not entirely independent and are heterogeneous. Digital interventions are gradually being integrated into practice because of affordable mobile electronic devices in many settings. However, the flaws of some of the existing digital technologies to improve medication adherence are that they are not tailored to patients’ individual problems. The existing apps are commonly delivered as a one-size-fit-all intervention, assuming that the reasons for non-adherence are the same for the patients. We propose a novel app that will not only screen patients who are being non-adherent, but will also guide healthcare providers to identify patients’ individual problem and to deliver the recommended personalized strategies

 

The Project

The aim of this project is to develop a smart-phone application for health care providers that can be used for personalized interventions to improve medication adherence of TB patients (SMART-TB) in Indonesia. The proposed apps can be applied in primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities in Indonesia and can be adapted to other high-TB prevalence countries.

 

The Science

The SMART-TB app will be developed in Bahasa with five main functions, called SIM-CAR functions, as follow: Screening (to identify medication adherence problems in TB patients), Intervening (to intervene in TB patients’ individual problems of medication adherence), Monitoring (to monitor TB patients in taking their medication), Communicating (to communicate about medication adherence among TB officers (pharmacist/ TB programmer), TB patients, and TB experts), and Administrating (to register patient information related to medication adherence until the TB treatment outcomes are measured). In the first year, we will develop a prototype of the SMART-TB. Its content development will be performed through a literature review and qualitative study. In the second year, pilot testing will be conducted to validate the content and implementation of the prototype in a small-scale population representing rural and urban area. In the third year, the content and system of the SMART-TB will be validated based on the results of the pilot testing.

 

The Team

The SMART-TB partners are:

  • Coordinator: Rizky Abdulah, PhD, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
  • Prof. Jutti Levita, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
  • Ivan S. Pradipta, PhD, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
  • Sofa D. Alfian, M.PH, PharmD, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
  • Prof. dr. Eelko Hak, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • Prof. Katja Taxis, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • Prof. Jan-Willem Alffenaar, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • Job F. M. van Boven, PhD, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
  • Prof. Esin Aki Yalcin, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
  • Prof. Federico Gago, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain
  • Ly Le, PhD, Ho Chi Minh City International University, Vietnam

Contact: Rizky Abdulah, PhD; Email: r.abdulah@unpad.ac.id