Mobile Phone Texts Reduce HIV Diagnosis Times.
The time it takes for a child to be diagnosed with HIV can be dramatically reduced by using a mobile phone text message, according to a study led by BUSPH researchers and published in a special e-health issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
In the research, conducted in Zambia, scientists found that turnaround times for diagnosis fell by almost half, when compared to traditional postal methods, if diagnoses from blood tests were sent by text message from the testing lab to the health facility.
“This trial showed that turnaround times for HIV test results could be reduced significantly by sending blood test results by short message service – or text message – in a country where there are limited resources, such as Zambia,” said Phil Seidenberg, a BUSPH clinical assistant professor of international health with the BU Center for Global Health & Development (CGHD).
Phil Seidenberg“We believe that this research signals how the processes behind testing of HIV and other illnesses can be transformed and improved through mobile phone technology, ensuring that healthcare facilities and patients are provided with their results far more quickly.”
Mobile phone use in the medical sector has increased in recent years, mainly because of the introduction of smartphones, which can be used to monitor everything from heart rates to diabetes.
In the study, researchers noted that transmitting lab results on paper via a courier service could take several weeks, with the results sometimes lost in transit. In addition, after the results have been physically transported to the relevant health facility, a child’s caregivers must return to the facility to receive the results, adding further, critical delays.
Using text messaging reduced the turnaround time for results to reach a health facility from a mean of 44.2 days to 26.7 days, the research team found. The mean time to notification of a caregiver also fell, from 66.8 days pre-implementation, to 35 days post-implementation.
Mobile phones are “a potentially powerful public health tool in Zambia,” the researchers said. “The mobile phone platform is increasingly being used across sub-Saharan Africa for functions other than conversations, including the dissemination of information about weather trends and commodity market prices to farmers, the provision of electronic food vouchers from the World Food Programme, and monetary transactions.”
Besides Seidenberg, CGHD researchers on the study included Donald Thea, professor of international health, and Katherine Semrau, assistant professor. Rachael Bonawitz of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center was a co-author, along with researchers from the Zambia Center for Applied Health Research and Development; United Nations Children’s Fund Zambia; and the Zambian Ministry of Health.
The full study is available here: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/90/5/11-100032.pdf
submitted by: Lisa Chedekel
chedekel@bu.edu