Feasibility and cost of using mobile phones for capturing drug safety information in peri-urban settlement in Ghana: a prospective cohort study of patients with uncomplicated malaria.

Background: The growing need to capture data on health and health events using faster and efficient means to enable prompt evidence-based decision-making is making the use of mobile phones for health an alternative means to capture anti-malarial drug safety data. This paper examined the feasibility and cost of using mobile phones vis-à-vis home visit to monitor adverse events (AEs) related to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in peri-urban Ghana.

Methods: A prospective, observational, cohort study conducted on 4270 patients prescribed ACT in 21 health facilities.