Using Patient Pathway Analysis to Design Patient-centered Referral Networks for Diagnosis and Treatment of Tuberculosis: The Case of the Philippines.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the 8th leading cause of death in the Philippines. A recent prevalence survey found that there were nearly 70% more cases of tuberculosis than previously estimated. Given these new data, the National TB Program (NTP), operating through a decentralized health system, identified about 58% of the estimated new drug-sensitive (DS) TB patients in 2016.

Conducting Patient-Pathway Analysis to Inform Programming of Tuberculosis Services: Methods.

Patient-centered care is a central pillar of the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy. Understanding where patients access health services is a first step to planning for the placement of services to meet patient needs and preferences. The patient-pathway analysis (PPA) methodology detailed in this article was developed to better understand the alignment between patient care seeking and tuberculosis service availability.

Quality Tuberculosis Care in Indonesia: Using Patient Pathway Analysis to Optimize Public-Private Collaboration.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the fourth leading cause of death in Indonesia. In 2015, the World Health Organization estimated that nearly two-thirds of the TB patients in Indonesia had not been notified, and the status of their care remained unknown. As such, Indonesia is home to nearly 20% of the world's "missing" TB patients.

Using Survival Analysis to Identify Risk Factors for Treatment Interruption among New and Retreatment Tuberculosis Patients in Kenya.

Despite high tuberculosis (TB) treatment success rate, treatment adherence is one of the major obstacles to tuberculosis control in Kenya. Our objective was to identify patient-related factors that were associated with time to TB treatment interruption and the geographic distribution of the risk of treatment interruption by county. Data of new and retreatment patients registered in TIBU, a Kenyan national case-based electronic data recording system, between 2013 and 2014 was obtained.

Global burden of trachoma and economics of the disease.

Interest in the economics of trachoma is high because of the refinement of a strategy to control trachomatous blindness, an ongoing global effort to eliminate incident blindness from trachoma by 2020, and an azithromycin donation program that is a component of trachoma control programs in several countries. This report comments on the economic distribution of blindness from trachoma and adds insight to published data on the burden of trachoma and the comparative costs and effects of trachoma control. Results suggest that 1) trichiasis without visual impairment may result in an economic burden comparable to trachomatous low vision and blindness so that 2) the monetary burden of trachoma may be 50% higher than conservative, published figures; 3) within some regions more productive economies are associated with less national blindness from trachoma; and 4) the ability to achieve a positive net benefit of trachoma control depends importantly on the cost per dose of antibiotic.

Estimating the burden and economic impact of trachomatous visual loss.

Objective: To estimate the burden (disability-adjusted life years) and economic impact (potential productivity loss) associated with trachomatous visual loss.

Data: National survey data on trachomatous blindness or visual impairment since 1980.

Methods: The primary results summarized studies for countries with known or suspected blinding trachoma within World Development Report demographic regions.