Digital Technologies for Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence
Summary
Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of infectious mortality worldwide, with treatment adherence posing a critical challenge to control efforts. Conventional directly observed therapy (DOT) can impose significant burdens on patients and health services, especially in resource-limited settings. Digital adherence technologies (DATs) offer patient-centred alternatives by harnessing mobile phones, sensors and cloud-based platforms to monitor and support medication intake remotely. Common approaches include short message service (SMS) reminders, electronic medication monitors that log box openings, and video-observed therapy (VOT) in which patients record and transmit ingestion events. These innovations aim to reduce clinic visits, optimise healthcare resources and enable real-time risk stratification. Early implementation studies reveal improvements in adherence metrics and patient satisfaction, yet persistent challenges—such as network coverage, device charging, digital literacy and data privacy—must be addressed. As global health programmes seek scalable solutions, robust evidence on clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and equitable access remains a priority.
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Digital Technologies for Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in digital technologies for tuberculosis treatment adherence across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Digital adherence technology (DAT): digital tools and platforms designed to monitor and support patient medication-taking behaviour.
Directly observed therapy (DOT): traditional approach in which a healthcare worker or designated observer supervises each dose of medication intake.
Video-observed therapy (VOT): remote method of treatment supervision involving patients recording and transmitting videos of medication intake.
Short message service (SMS): text messaging system used to send reminders or prompts to patients via mobile phones.
mHealth: use of mobile and wireless technologies to deliver health interventions and services.
References
- Acceptability and feasibility of digital adherence technologies for drug-susceptible tuberculosis treatment supervision: A meta-analysis of implementation feedback. PLOS Digital Health (2023).
- Digital Health Interventions to Enhance Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence: Scoping Review. JMIR mHealth and uHealth (2023).
- Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing a Digital Adherence Technology for Tuberculosis Treatment Supervision in Uganda: Qualitative Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research (2023).
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