TY - GEN
T1 - The case for SmartTrack
AU - Paik, Michael
AU - Sharma, Ashlesh
AU - Meacham, Arthur
AU - Quarta, Giulio
AU - Smith, Philip
AU - Trahanas, John
AU - Levine, Brian
AU - Hopkins, Mary Ann
AU - Rapchak, Barbara
AU - Subramanian, Lakshminarayanan
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Nearly 40 million people in Africa suffer from HIV/AIDS. African governments and international aid agencies have been working to combat this epidemic by vigorously promoting Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) programs. Despite the enormous subsidies offered by governments along with free Anti-Retro Viral (ARV) drugs supplied by agencies, the introduction and implementation of HAART programs on a large scale has been limited by two fundamental problems: (a) lack of adherence to the ARV therapy regimen; (b) lack of accountability in drug distribution due to theft, corruption and counterfeit medication. In this paper, we motivate the case for SmartTrack, a telehealth project which aims to address these two problems facing HAART programs. The goal of SmartTrack is to create a highly reliable, secure and ultra low-cost cellphone-based distributed drug information system that can be used for tracking the flow and consumption of ARV drugs in HAART programs. In this paper, we assess the potential benefit of SmartTrack using a detailed needs-assessment study performed in Ghana, using interviews with 516 HIV-positive rural patients in a number of locations across the country. We find that a system like SmartTrack would immensely benefit both patients and healthcare providers, and can ultimately lead to improved patient outcomes and better accountability.
AB - Nearly 40 million people in Africa suffer from HIV/AIDS. African governments and international aid agencies have been working to combat this epidemic by vigorously promoting Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) programs. Despite the enormous subsidies offered by governments along with free Anti-Retro Viral (ARV) drugs supplied by agencies, the introduction and implementation of HAART programs on a large scale has been limited by two fundamental problems: (a) lack of adherence to the ARV therapy regimen; (b) lack of accountability in drug distribution due to theft, corruption and counterfeit medication. In this paper, we motivate the case for SmartTrack, a telehealth project which aims to address these two problems facing HAART programs. The goal of SmartTrack is to create a highly reliable, secure and ultra low-cost cellphone-based distributed drug information system that can be used for tracking the flow and consumption of ARV drugs in HAART programs. In this paper, we assess the potential benefit of SmartTrack using a detailed needs-assessment study performed in Ghana, using interviews with 516 HIV-positive rural patients in a number of locations across the country. We find that a system like SmartTrack would immensely benefit both patients and healthcare providers, and can ultimately lead to improved patient outcomes and better accountability.
KW - Drug monitoring
KW - Drug tracking
KW - Patient adherence
KW - SmartTrack
KW - Telehealth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77951608939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77951608939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICTD.2009.5426683
DO - 10.1109/ICTD.2009.5426683
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77951608939
SN - 9781424446636
T3 - 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD 2009 - Proceedings
SP - 458
EP - 467
BT - 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD 2009 - Proceedings
T2 - 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD 2009
Y2 - 17 April 2009 through 19 April 2009
ER -