Region:
Latin America & Caribbean
Country:
Nicaragua Partners:
Innovations in International Health of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
CARE Nicaragua;
Activities:
In order to reduce treatment non-compliance, a pilot project combined adherence monitoring with an incentive structure. TB patients were given encrypted paper-microfluidics test strips. When the medicine has been taken, a urin test reveals a code which the patient sends via SMS to a database. Compliance is rewarded with free mobile minutes.
Further reading:
Barclay, E. 2009, Text Messages Could Hasten Tuberculosis Drug Compliance, The Lancet, vol. 373, no. 9657, pp. 15-16
Trafton, A. 2008, Eridicating TB With... Cell Phone Minutes? Massachusetts Institute of Technology News, 4 Jun. 2008
[added March 2010]
