Sponsor
: The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01 MH054907, K23MH 087228, K24 MH87227, and P30 AI027793), and the Mark and Lisa Schwartz Family Foundation. MJS received additional support from the Harvard Institute for Global Health and from the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program at Vanderbilt University (R24 TW007988) and the American Relief and Recovery Act.
Published In
PLoS ONE
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2012
Subjects
Telecommunication in medicine, HIV infections -- Uganda -- Treatment, Patient compliance -- Sub-Saharan Africa, Wireless communication systems in medical care
Physical Description
5 pages
Abstract
Background: Mobile health (mHealth) technologies hold incredible promise to improve healthcare delivery in resourcelimited settings. Network reliability across large catchment areas can be a major challenge. We performed an analysis of network failure frequency as part of a study of real-time adherence monitoring in rural Uganda. We hypothesized that the addition of short messaging service (SMS+GPRS) to the standard cellular network modality (GPRS) would reduce network disruptions and improve transmission of data.
Methods: Participants were enrolled in a study of real-time adherence monitoring in southwest Uganda. In June 2011, we began using Wisepill devices that transmit data each time the pill bottle is opened. We defined network failures as medication interruptions of .48 hours duration that were transmitted when network connectivity was re-established. During the course of the study, we upgraded devices from GPRS to GPRS+SMS compatibility. We compared network failure rates between GPRS and GPRS+SMS periods and created geospatial maps to graphically demonstrate patterns of connectivity.
Results: One hundred fifty-seven participants met inclusion criteria of seven days of SMS and seven days of SMS+GPRS observation time. Seventy-three percent were female, median age was 40 years (IQR 33–46), 39% reported .1-hour travel time to clinic and 17% had home electricity. One hundred one had GPS coordinates recorded and were included in the geospatial maps. The median number of network failures per person-month for the GPRS and GPRS+SMS modalities were 1.5 (IQR 1.0–2.2) and 0.3 (IQR 0–0.9) respectively, (mean difference 1.2, 95%CI 1.0–1.3, p-value,0.0001). Improvements in network connectivity were notable throughout the region. Study costs increased by approximately $1USD per personmonth.
Conclusions: Addition of SMS to standard GPRS cellular network connectivity can significantly reduce network connection failures for mobile health applications in remote areas. Projects depending on mobile health data in resource-limited settings should consider this upgrade to optimize mHealth applications.
Note: At the time of writing, David Bangsberg was affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and Ragon Institute.
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0045643
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19070
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation Details
Siedner MJ, Lankowski A, Musinga D, Jackson J, Muzoora C, et al. (2012) Optimizing Network Connectivity for Mobile Health Technologies in subSaharan Africa. PLoS ONE 7(9): e45643. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045643
Description
Copyright: 2012 Siedner et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.