Mobile health treatment support intervention for HIV and tuberculosis in Mozambique: Perspectives of patients and healthcare workers.

Background: Studies have been conducted in developing countries using SMS to communicate with patients to reduce the number of missed appointments and improve retention in treatment, however; very few have been scaled up. One possible reason for this could be that patients or staff are dissatisfied with the method in some way. This paper reports a study of patients' and healthcare workers' (HCW) views on an mHealth intervention aiming to support retention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) and tuberculosis (TB) treatment in Mozambique.

SMSaúde: Evaluating Mobile Phone Text Reminders to Improve Retention in HIV Care for Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in Mozambique.

Objective: We evaluated whether regular mobile phone text reminders improved patients' retention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) care in Mozambique.

Design: SMSaúde was a randomized control trial of HIV-infected patients on ART who received regular text message reminder vs. standard of care at 3 public health facilities in Maputo Province, Mozambique.

SMSaúde: Design, Development, and Implementation of a Remote/Mobile Patient Management System to Improve Retention in Care for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Patients.

Background: The widespread and low cost of mobile phones and the convenience of short message service (SMS) text messaging suggest potential suitability for use with alternative strategies for supporting retention in care and adherence to the treatment of various chronic diseases, such as HIV and tuberculosis (TB). Despite the growing body of literature reporting positive outcomes of SMS text message-based communication with patients, there is yet very little research about the integration of communication technologies and electronic medical records or electronic patient tracking systems.

Objective: To design, develop, and implement an integrated mobile phone text messaging system used to follow up with patients with HIV and TB in treatment in Mozambique.

Mobile technologies and geographic information systems to improve health care systems: a literature review.

Background: A growing body of research has employed mobile technologies and geographic information systems (GIS) for enhancing health care and health information systems, but there is yet a lack of studies of how these two types of systems are integrated together into the information infrastructure of an organization so as to provide a basis for data analysis and decision support. Integration of data and technical systems across the organization is necessary for efficient large-scale implementation.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to identify how mobile technologies and GIS applications have been used, independently as well as in combination, for improving health care.