Smartphone-enabled video-observed versus directly observed treatment for tuberculosis: a multicentre, analyst-blinded, randomised, controlled superiority trial
Alistair Story, PhD; Robert W Aldridge, PhD; Catherine M Smith, PhD; Elizabeth Garber, MSc; Joe Hall, MSc; Gloria Ferenando, MSc; Lucia Possas, MSc; Sara Hemming, MSc; Fatima Wurie, MSc; Serena Luchenski, FFPH; Prof Ibrahim Abubakar, PhD; Prof Timothy D McHugh, PhD; Peter J White, PhD; Prof John M Watson, FFPH; Marc Lipman, MD; Richard Garfein, PhD; Prof Andrew C Hayward, MD
Background
Directly observed treatment (DOT) has been the standard of care for tuberculosis since the early 1990s, but it is inconvenient for patients and service providers. Video-observed therapy (VOT) has been conditionally recommended by WHO as an alternative to DOT. We tested whether levels of treatment observation were improved with VOT.