Biometric Monitoring as a Persuasive Technology: Ensuring Patients Visit Health Centers in India’s Slums

Bhatnagar, Nupur; Sinha, Abhishek; Samdaria, Navkar; Gupta, Aakar; Batra, Shelly; Bhardwaj, Manish; Thies, William

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31037-9_15

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Evidence on the impact of biometric identification for healthcare provision is encouraging but still scarce. Bhatnagar et al (2012) and Snidal et al (2015) study the use of biometric devices for TB control through qualitative and observational studies. We contribute a randomized design to solve selection issues and rigorously quantify the impact of the technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biometric Tracking, Healthcare Provision, and Data Quality: Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control

Bossuroy¹,

Delavallade²,

Pons

2019

SSRN Journal

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Developing countries increasingly use biometric identification technology in hopes of improving the reliability of administrative information and delivering social services more efficiently. This paper exploits the random placement of biometric tracking devices in tuberculosis treatment centers in urban slums across four Indian states to measure their effects both on disease control and on the quality of health records. The devices record health worker attendance and patient adherence to treatment, and they automatically generate prompts to follow up with patients who miss doses. Combining data from patient and health worker surveys, independent field visits, and government registers, we first find that patients enrolled at biometric-equipped centers are 25 percent less likely to interrupt treatment-an improvement driven by increased attendance and efforts by health workers and greater treatment adherence by patients. Second, biometric tracking decreases data forgery: it reduces overreporting of patient numbers in both NGO data and government registers and underreporting of treatment interruptions. Third, the impact of biometric tracking is sustained over time and it decreases neither health worker satisfaction nor patient satisfaction. Overall, our results suggest biometric tracking technology is both an effective and sustainable way to improve the state's capacity to deliver healthcare in challenging areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biometric Tracking, Healthcare Provision, and Data Quality: Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control

Bossuroy¹,

Delavallade²,

Pons

2019

SSRN Journal

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“…Initial qualitative results are hopeful; however, future quantitative analysis is needed to assess the clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of the intervention. 20 Another example is the well-designed MIOTIC Study, a multicentre RCT that evaluated long-term efficacy of mobile phone-based internet-of-things HIT in the management of 600 Chinese patients with stable COPD to overcome limited medical resources and increased medical demand. Using mobile phones with Internet connectivity, participants can connect sensors to a cloud platform for instant measurement analysis, self-report symptomatic changes such as stress and schedule medication reminders and get instantaneous personalised advise and educational materials calculated to be tailored to a participant's needs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suggestions for health information technology trials for respiratory disorders in low- and middle-income country settings: what can we learn from trials in high-income country settings?

Chavannes

Puy

Bai

2015

npj Prim Care Resp Med

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Health Information Technology (HIT) is sometimes seen as a silver bullet for human resource, medical and economic challenges facing health systems. The evidence supporting widespread use of HIT is, however, still patchy and inconsistent. In this Perspective piece, we seek to interpret and draw key lessons from a selection of illustrative trials in developed countries with robust health-care settings in respiratory medicine that failed to demonstrate effectiveness, and offer suggestions to maximise the chances of success in subsequent HIT deployments. Particularly low- and middle-income countries, with relatively weak health infrastructures and limited health care, propose considerable room for improvement. Early experiences of studying HIT thus far in high-income country settings suggest that this process should preferably begin with trials of low-cost, well-established technologies in patient groups with a moderate burden of disease while carefully evaluating patient safety.

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“…Researchers have also worked to improve the transparency and accountability of DOT programs. In a project called eCompliance, biometric fingerprinting technology is used to verify that health workers and patients meet as intended [17,48]. Experience from eCompliance helped motivate the design of 99DOTS, since strict enforcement of DOT revealed common situations in which patients need to take drugs remotely.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This challenge is increasingly important in global health, as chronic disease is projected to account for almost three quarters of global deaths by 2020 [63]. While medication adherence may seem like a simple problem, it has emerged as a deep psychological, sociological, and logistical challenge [16,17,58]. Though some successful adherence interventions do exist, many seem to fail, and overall rates of adherence have remained nearly unchanged in recent decades [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

99dots

Cross

Gupta

Liu

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development

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Ensuring that patients adhere to prescribed medication remains an important challenge in global health. While technology has been utilized to monitor and improve adherence, solutions to date have been too costly for large-scale deployment in developing regions. This paper describes 99DOTS, a low-cost approach for tracking adherence using a combination of paper packaging and low-end mobile phones. Every day, patients reveal an unpredictable phone number behind the pills and send a free call to that number to indicate that drugs were dispensed and taken. Within five years of its inception, 99DOTS has become a standard of care for tuberculosis in India and has enrolled over 200,000 patients. We provide a holistic account of the project's evolution, including its iterative design, scaled implementation, and lessons learned along the way. We hope this account will serve as a useful case study for anyone seeking to establish and scale new low-cost technologies for a global audience.

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Biometric Monitoring as a Persuasive Technology: Ensuring Patients Visit Health Centers in India’s Slums

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Biometric Tracking, Healthcare Provision, and Data Quality: Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control

Biometric Tracking, Healthcare Provision, and Data Quality: Experimental Evidence from Tuberculosis Control

Suggestions for health information technology trials for respiratory disorders in low- and middle-income country settings: what can we learn from trials in high-income country settings?

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