Project Lead(s): Shelly Batra
Issue
India bears the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden in the world, with 2.2 million of the 8.6 million new cases estimated worldwide.
In limited-resource settings, where there is poor access to quality healthcare, TB patients are often not adequately monitored, leading to complications, such as the development of multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB).
Solution
OpASHA has developed and deployed eCompliance – a biometric terminal composed of an Android tablet and fingerprint reader that tracks patient adherence to scheduled treatment, under the supervision of a community health worker (CHW).
The software has been updated to a text-free, image-based version for illiterate users.
OpASHA uses a web-based business intelligence and reporting tool to collect and collate data from the eCompliance tablets, and to generate reports.
Five hundred and eighty patients were enrolled in the project to test the tool with 13 CHWs and two assistant program managers trained to support the program.
Two stationary centres, each with an eCompliance terminal, were located in the sub-district headquarters, which has a population of nearly 45,000. All other centres are mobile and provide home-based care in the 165 villages spread across the sub-district.
Outcome
OpASHA's biometric system was successfully used to track TB patients in a remote part of India called Mandla.
Through the project, almost the entire target population has been made aware of TB, its symptoms and treatment.
In addition, 585 TB cases were detected and treated, with an average annual detection rate of 206 per 100,000. This rate is higher than the 145/100,000 rate recorded before the program was implemented and far better than the national average of 127/100,000.
This was achieved at a very low recurring cost of $145 per patient.
The project was responsible for upgrading the skills of 14 persons in Mandla.
The project team plans to apply for Transition To Scale (TTS) funding to demonstrate that their model, including eCompiance, can be scaled to a large scale to deliver excellent results at a very low cost.