A model for monitoring HIV/AIDS patients on ART in low resource setting: A case of using mobile phones

Many HIV/AIDS support organizations have demonstrated tremendous efforts to provide HIV infected people with the life prolonging drugs such as ART(Anti- Retroviral Therapy) in resource constrained settings like Uganda. However many people still lack enough information on how to effectively use them leading to high death rates. ART service providers can greatly improve their service delivery if they incorporate appropriate healthcare models into their HIV care programs. A new model has been designed to support ART service delivery and patient monitoring using mobile phones in resource constrained settings such as Uganda. The model is an extension of the chronic care model that incorporates in new components namely: Patient Information Management Systems & Communication Systems), Monitoring approach which utilizes a mobile based computer system and Virtual outreach services such as Telemedicine, E- health and M-health. The new model enables ART service providers to monitor patients' ART intake and clinical appointments. Patients are also able to contact their ART service providers in case of any opportunistic infections or toxic effects from the drugs. To test and validate the model, a mobile application for monitoring HIV/AIDs patients on ART has been developed but yet to be tested with ART service providers and patients.