healthcare technology

Adherence to treatment is critical for successful treatment outcomes.

 

Although factors influencing antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence vary, young adults are less likely to adhere owing to psychosocial issues such as stigma, ART-related side effects, and a lack of access to treatment.

 

The Call for Life Uganda (CFLU) mobile health (mHealth) tool is a mobile phone–based technology that provides text messages or interactive voice response functionalities through a web interface and offers 4 modules of support.

Objective: This study aims to describe the acceptability and feasibility of a mobile phone support tool to promote adherence to ART among young adults in a randomized controlled trial.

Methods: An exploratory qualitative design with a phenomenological approach at 2 study sites was used. A total of 17 purposively selected young adults with HIV infection who had used the mHealth tool CFLU from 2 clinics were included. In total, 11 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group discussion were conducted to examine the following topics: experience with the CFLU tool (benefits and challenges), components of the tool, the efficiency of the system (level of comfort, ease, or difficulty in using the system), how CFLU resolved adherence challenges, and suggestions to improve CFLU. Participants belonged to 4 categories of interest: young adults on ART for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, young adults switching to or on the second-line ART, positive partners in an HIV-discordant relationship, and young adults initiating the first-line ART. All young adults had 12 months of daily experience using the tool. Data were analyzed using NVivo version 11 software (QSR International Limited) based on a thematic approach.

Results: The CFLU mHealth tool was perceived as an acceptable intervention;

 

young adults reported improvement in medication adherence, strengthened clinician-patient relationships, and increased health knowledge from health tips.

 

Appointment reminders and symptom reporting were singled out as beneficial and helped to address the problems of forgetfulness and stigma-related issues.

 

HIV-related stigma was reported by a few young people. Participants requested extra support for scaling up CFLU to make it more youth friendly.

 

Improving the tool to reduce technical issues, including network outages and a period of software failure, was suggested. They suggested that in addition to digital solutions, other support, including the promotion of peer support meetings and the establishment of a designated space and staff members for youth, was also important.

Conclusions: This mHealth tool was an acceptable and feasible strategy for improving ART adherence and retention among young adults in resource-limited settings.

read the entire study at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e17418/

 

There is a seriousness, almost an urgent kind, amongst the healthcare ecosystem to adopt digital technologies more openly as compared to the pre - covid era. Since we have always been talking about the importance of taking healthcare digital, this acceptance of digital technologies has impacted us tremendously and favourably.

 

Plus91's Digital Health Systems have always been a few years too soon for the market, and Covid just fast-forwarded the world to use us right away.

 

What is your take on virtual methods of providing treatment?

 

All virtual treatment methods, whether it is TeleHealth, Remote Monitoring, Tele Pathology are very much a necessity. Covid has simply brought them into the limelight and forced the world to adopt them quickly.

 

I believe they all benefit healthcare immensely, and thus should be adopted wholeheartedly by doctors and patients. They end up offering a wider variety of options for both and allow a far richer treatment mindset to get created in the coming years.

 

Doctors benefit from being accessible to patients from across the globe more easily and frequently for both offering care as well as 2nd/3rd opinions. This helps them acquire experience on a wider range of patients besides the ones that come to them purely due to geographical viability.

 

Patients benefit a lot as they can access doctors more easily, and also get doctors who may be in a different part of the world from them who are experts at dealing with a specific condition without having to bear the cost of travel.

 

What impact do you want to create in the medical field?

 

I want to make healthcare more holistic, error-free, and open. I believe in the distant future we will be able to address the whole issue of disease and mankind will be completely focused on health from the wellness perspective rather than a treatment perspective. And I want to be an integral part of that change.

 

read the whole interview at : https://www.eatmy.news/2021/04/nrip-nihalani-i-want-to-make-healthcare.html