Compliance Service South Africa

Article

On-Cue Compliance used SMS reminders to help tuberculosis patients in Cape Town, South Africa, stick to their demanding six-month drug regimen. Patients such as Avril Skiffers received a daily text at a set time telling them to take their medication, sent in English, Afrikaans or Xhosa, sparing them a daily trip to a clinic that the World Health Organisation’s observed-treatment rules would otherwise require. To keep patients engaged, the reminders were later enriched with TB facts, lifestyle tips and the occasional joke, and the service specifically targeted poorer patients who, despite their circumstances, were often heavy users of mobile phones.