Pill-popping success via SMS
2002-06-25 10:47
Lourens du Plessis
Cape Town - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially recognised an innovative project by a Cape doctor to support TB patients through SMS messages.
Dr David Green got the idea when his own mother, who had hypertension, forgot to take her medicine. The biggest problem when it comes to the treatment of TB patients is that patients often do not complete the full course of their treatment.
He said: "It is crucial that patients start and complete a course to prevent them from picking up a new infection with a greater resistance towards the medication."
According to Green, the project has been expanded to include other diseases.
"We have seen about 100 through the TB programme, but I have about 3 000 patients on my SMS databank. The others have either HIV/Aids, diabetes or hypertension.
After health workers initially doubted the number of people with TB who could be reached via cellphone, a survey showed that 71% of those at the Chapel Street clinic in Woodstock did have access.
According to Dr Ivan Toms, director of Cape Town city health, they are planning to expand the project to include clinics with lower numbers of cellphone-users.
Council waiting on scientific figures
The WHO also heard of the project and included it in the latest Global Health Report under the section for innovative care for patients with chronic diseases.
Scientific studies are now on the way to look into the success rate of the project so that the city council can expand it.
Green said: "I think the main reason the project has not yet expanded the way we wanted it to, is because the council is waiting for scientific figures. Hopefully, this will change now.
The city council sponsors the SMS system which costs about R11.80 a patient monthly.
Green, who runs his own practice, had special computer software programmed that automatically sends the SMS messages.
"Each patient receives a personalised message with different text each day. Each patient's name also appears at the top of the message. This keeps them interested."
According to the latest WHO statistics, 214 out of every 100 000 South Africans have tuberculosis. South Africa and the Western Cape, in particular, have the highest incidences of TB in the world.
- Die Burger