Resources: Frequently Asked Questions

By consulting the following page about budgeting you will get a deeper look into the elements that influence cost factors for a DAT implementation.

You could also consult the following documents:

• Budget Guide: DAT line items to include in funding applications
• Global Fund Briefing Note on DATs.

The Global DAT Task Force is fully funded to provide technical assistance to countries planning to implement DATs in country, or scale their DAT intervention. You can contact us directly through this contact form.

You can access the Global Fund funding application guidance here to formulate your country’s funding proposal.,

For specific DAT related funding and budget development consult the following documents:

• Budget Guide: DAT line items to include in funding applications
• Global Fund Briefing Note on DATs.

Yes, we supply free samples of the digital adherence technologies, and a demonstration of the adherence platform. You can request this by using this form.

Each country has it’s own specific needs in terms of human resources to support a DAT intervention and therefore vary per country and project setting and will need to be investigated further within the setting of implementation. Broadly speaking, the following are DAT implementation support personnel to consider:

• IT support;
• Intervention rollout training and follow up training;
• Supervision and support to ensure quality control as part of patient support and capacity building.

For further information, consult this page about implementation costs.

The smart pill box and video supported treatment are both well suited to provide adherence support to patients.

For further information on the smart pill box with the BPaL regimen, consult the following:

• Adherence support with BPaL (M) roll-out

The World Health Organization published their updated consolidated guidelines on Tuberculosis for treatment in July 2022.

As a part of the guidelines there were multiple references to the use of digital adherence technologies as a tool in TB treatment.

For further information on this consult the following:

• Digital Adherence Technologies in the World Health Organizations Consolidated Guidelines on Tuberculosis Care and Support

The medication sleeve/label is only suitable for patients treated with Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) medication, and therefore not usable for patients using multiple pills and package formats for their treatment.

There are multiple cost factors that go into the implementation of the 99DOTS system, which are not easily delineated. By consulting the budgeting page you will get a more accurate estimation for the costs of 99DOTS.

Procurement for the medication sleeve/label needs to be done through an in-country printing facility. For further details about this you can consult the medication sleeve/label procurement page.

• Patients need daily access to a phone that can make calls and/or can send and receive SMSs.
• The patient needs a positive airtime balance daily to report medication intake (even though the patient may not be charged for the call or SMS). Adherence reporting may be interrupted if the patient has a zero-airtime balance.
• The patient will need to send a unique code each day to log adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

• The healthcare provider will need to ensure that patient phone number is up to date on the adherence platform, otherwise incoming medication intake phone calls or SMS messages cannot be linked to patient.
• Healthcare providers require a smartphone, tablet, or laptop and internet connectivity to access online adherence platform. The information from the adherence platform can then activate targeted follow-up actions and support by healthcare providers and other staff based on patient adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

There is a great deal of communication infrastructure that requires to be setup before rollout can begin. This is best done through an aggregator. Consult the following page for a more detailed description. Should you require further assistance you can contact us for technical assistance in setting this up.

The patient needs a daily mobile connection in order send a message to the specific code to log medication adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

Once the necessary infrastructure has been setup, and the medication sleeves/labels have been printed (procurement), the medication will need to be repackaged into the patient medication sleeves, or the label with the unique code will need to be attached to the blister package.

The cost for the Smart Pill Box kit is $53.75, which includes:

• a plastic medication container
• batteries
• a chip and wireless data sufficient for at least three years — meaning it could be used by multiple patients over that period.

Learn more by consulting the following:

• Costing guide

The Smart Pill Box is manufactured by Wisepill in South Africa. Procurement can be done through the Global Drug Facility. When ordered through this platform the Smart Pill Boxes are delivered to the country NTP ready for use.

The Smart Pill Box is suitable for all types of TB as it can be used across all medication types and/or combination of treatment(s).

There are no additional requirements for the patient to use the Smart Pill Box as they are provided the pill box by the facility at no cost to themselves. Medication intake is logged and sent automatically by opening the smart pill box, therefore no additional actions are required by the patient.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

Healthcare providers require a smartphone, tablet, or laptop and internet connectivity to access online adherence platform. The information from the adherence platform can then activate targeted follow-up actions and support by healthcare providers and other staff based on patient adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

The Smart Pill Box could be used by multiple patients. The plastic container can be cleaned or replaced for each patient, but the chip inside, which is the expensive component, can be transferred to a new container. The chip and wireless data is sufficient for at least three years.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

Apart from a mobile service provider being able to support 2G connectivity, there are no additional communication infrastructure requirements.

When mobile connectivity is temporary not available, opening events are stored in the smart pill box memory and uploaded automatically when internet connectivity is available again.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

Lead-time from ordering to receival of smart pill boxes in-country can take between 3 to 6 months.

Besides charging, the smart pill box can be used by patients immediately after delivery. No specialized in-country infrastructure required.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

The battery lasts up to 6 months before it requires a recharge.

There are multiple cost factors that go into the implementation of Video Observed Treatment, which are not easily delineated. By consulting the budgeting you will get a more accurate estimation for the costs of VOT.

Learn more by also consulting the following:

• Costing guide

Video observed treatment can be used for all types of TB as it is suitable across all medication types.

By consulting the following page on the generalised steps towards implementing DATS, and the VOT procurement specific page you will have a good understanding about the various procurement steps to implement.

No, as the patient needs daily access to Wi-Fi or mobile data network, and the healthcare provider needs daily access to Wi-Fi or a mobile data network to review the videos.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

• Patient needs daily access to a smart phone.
• Patient needs daily access to Wi-Fi or mobile data network.
• Patient needs to record medication intake by video for the entire treatment duration. This is expected to take 3 – 5 minutes each day.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

For VOT all that is required (after the adherence platform has been setup) is the installation of the video recording application for the patient to record and submit their daily medication adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

• Healthcare provider requires technology to review videos – a smartphone / tablet or computer as well as data or Wi-Fi.
• Provider needs to review and verify each patient medication intake video. This is expected to take 4 – 6 minutes per patient per day. However, this can take longer if there is a video recording error that needs to be followed up on.
• The information from the adherence platform can then activate targeted follow-up actions and support by healthcare providers and other staff based on patient adherence.

Learn more by consulting the Technical Brief: Five Country Experiences with Digital Adherence Technologies

All the patient needs to do to access video observed treatment is download and install the video recording application on their smart phone.

Costs for an adherence platform vary drastically, and depend on a number of factors, including the adherence platform solution; the country context; needs and country requirements.

For further information about this, please contact the DAT Task Force Secretariate.

The data collected varies per adherence platform solution.

For a Software as Service solution, data collected can include: patient demographics; actions taken on the platfrom by healthcare providers; adherence data per patient; overview of information such as the total number of patients enrolled.

For an Smart Pill Box API integration into a country data management system, this can be adapted per country and implementation requirements.

Yes, the exchange of information with other (in-country) information systems such as DHIS2 is possible.

There are multiple adherence platform solutions on offer. Your country needs for the adherence platform will influence the choice.

Below are a few options:

• SureAdhere
• Wisepill
• Everwell
• I-Like-VST
• Adhere2TX-TB
• ZMQ
• API Integration to country system (contact the Global DAT Task Force to request support with API integration)