Apollo Hospitals and The Union (International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) have introduced a Tuberculosis (TB) intervention programme that will send reminders to patients about administration of drugs and also notify cases to authorities.
Patients will get reminders through SMS, voice calls and even counselling if they skip the prescribed TB drugs, doctors said.
“The software will send everyday reminders to patients to take medicines. This is very important because in our experience, once patients start feeling better, they tend to discontinue medicines. This invariably causes complex drug resistant TB,” says head of the infectious disease department Sunita Nareddy.
The software will automatically upload patient information to the Central Government’s TB notification website ‘Nikshay’ and also support treatment adherence for patients.
“At present, there is no automatic mechanism in place to notify TB cases to government authorities. There is no system of follow-up of cases. The new software will address both these issues. The success rate for TB treatment is over 95 per cent. However, the adherence levels to the drugs are low,” said The Union’s project director Sarabjit Chadha.
The software would be tested on a pilot basis at Apollo Hospitals and based on the response, it would be scaled up. Hospital officials said The Union is implementing the project to involve all private health care providers in delivering effective and quality TB services.
Apollo Hospitals Group deputy MD Sangita Reddy launched the programme. For details, visit www.ahtts.in
At present, there is no automatic mechanism in place to notify TB cases to government authorities. There is no system of follow-up of cases. The new software will address both these issues
Sarabjit Chadha
Project director, The Union
