HEALTHCARE · VIDEO-SUPPORTED TREATMENT
AdhereTB.
Bringing tuberculosis treatment to the patient's home.
A video-supported treatment app piloted in Georgia with World Bank funding, later adapted for four more countries at the request of the World Health Organization.
Summary
Tuberculosis is curable, but only if the patient takes every dose for many months, and the standard of care requires medical staff to watch each dose being taken. In Georgia, treatment centres are concentrated in the main cities, so patients from remote regions had to travel long distances almost every day just to swallow their pills in front of a nurse. With funding from the World Bank, and in cooperation with Georgia's National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Leavingstone designed and built AdhereTB. The mobile app lets patients record themselves taking their medication at home and send the video to their nurse. The project contributed to Georgia's progress towards eliminating tuberculosis and became the model for the same approach in neighbouring countries.
Client
Industry
Healthcare · Public health
Services
UX/UI and visual design
iOS and Android apps
Web management system · Secure back end
The Challenge
Six days a week.
Just to take a pill.
Under directly observed therapy, a patient visits a medical facility six days a week for the whole course of treatment. For someone living in a mountain village, that means hours of travel, transport costs and lost working days, often while coping with the heavy side effects of drugs for drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Many patients cannot keep this up. When they stop treatment, the disease returns, becomes harder to treat and spreads to others. The task was to remove the daily journey without removing the medical supervision. The product had to work for patients of any age and with little experience of technology, including people who had never owned a smartphone. It had to give nurses a fast and reliable way to review dozens of videos a day. And it had to protect highly sensitive health data.
Our Solution
The clinic visit.
Replaced by a video.
Leavingstone delivered AdhereTB as a complete product: iOS and Android apps for patients and a web-based management system for medical staff. The patient collects a week of medication in a single visit, then records a short video of each daily dose at home, at a time that suits them. The video is uploaded securely, and the nurse reviews it and confirms the dose.
The app also shows the patient's prescribed medication with descriptions and possible side effects, lets them report side effects straight away and lets them ask their nurse questions directly. On the clinical side, doctors and nurses manage their whole caseload from one place and can see at once who has taken their medication and who needs a follow-up.
Patients without a smartphone or internet access are given both by the programme. The app was built so that it could be adapted to other languages and health systems, which made the later rollout to other countries possible.
Inside AdhereTB
Patient story
Maia keeps working.
And keeps treating.
Maia Chikovani, a mother of two from the village of Kveda Bashi in western Georgia, was diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis in July 2021. With AdhereTB she takes her medication at home and sends the video to her nurse, instead of travelling to a clinic every day. This lets her keep working and care for her family and small farm.
"This application helps because I can do the work I have at home," she says. Her story was published by the Global Fund and republished by Gavi: Maia's story: mobile app transforms drug-resistant TB treatment.
Key features
- Daily video recording of medication intake, uploaded for review by a nurse.
- Weekly medication supply in place of daily clinic visits.
- A personal medication list with drug descriptions and possible side effects.
- Immediate side-effect reporting.
- Direct questions from patient to nurse.
- A web management system for doctors and nurses to monitor their caseload.
- Encrypted data transfer.
- A structure that can be adapted for new countries and languages.
Key results
~900 patients
In Georgia since 2018
Around 300 in active treatment, according to the app's store listing.
6 days to 1
Clinic visits per week
Daily observed visits replaced by a single weekly medication collection.
5 countries
From pilot to region
After the Georgian pilot, WHO asked Leavingstone to adapt the app for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Treatment continued without interruption during COVID-19, when in-person visits had to be kept to a minimum.
Technology
Built for patients. Built for nurses.
Apps
iOS app · Android app · Daily video dose recording
Clinical side
Web-based management system for doctors and nurses
Security
Secure back end with encrypted video transfer
Let's work.
Tell us about your product. We'll respond within one business day to arrange a conversation with a senior partner.