MedTrace Logo

Pharmacist-led Digital Interventions to Improve Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence

NCT07069387 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 160

Last updated 2025-07-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The gold standard for tuberculosis (TB) treatment support requires directly observed therapy (DOT), which means a trained health worker observes the patient swallow each dose of medication every day for 2 months. Despite the practice of DOT in Malaysia, 1 in 20 patients are loss-to-follow-up and non-adherent to treatment. Sub-optimal adherence due to poor treatment acceptability and social desirability promotes TB treatment failure, disease relapse, on-going transmission, drug resistance, and death. Telemedicine offers a flexible and less invasive option to support TB treatment adherence. Despite 97% internet and smartphone penetration rates, the practical implementation of digital adherence strategies to support and monitor TB treatment remains untested in Malaysia. The investigators propose to design, implement, and measure the effectiveness of a comprehensive, pharmacist-led digital solution for TB treatment support called CARE-TB which combines a package of asynchronous video-observed therapy, digital reminders, telecounselling and e-learning. In this multi-method effectiveness-implementation (Type 2) study using the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment (EPIS) framework, the investigators aim 1) To identify patient and provider-level facilitators and barriers to CARE-TB adoption via qualitative evaluation and to design a stakeholder-informed implementation strategy, (2) To assess effectiveness of CARE-TB strategy by evaluating (i) implementation outcomes, (ii) patient health outcomes, and (iii) service outcomes, and (3) To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of CARE-TB compared to standard of care from a societal perspective. This study will leverage digital platforms to expand the reach of TB adherence support, enhance adherence to TB treatment and improve treatment completion rates, while utilising existing personnel and resources in among the busiest TB treatment centres in the country.

Conditions

  • Tuberculosis (TB)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

CARE-TB digital adherence package

CARE-TB package includes pharmacist-led asynchronous video observed therapy, digital medication reminders, telecounselling and e-learning for patients.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Care

Directly observed therapy at any government healthcare facility (by nurses) or at home (by caretaker)

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Malaya

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Reena Rajasuriar · University of Malaya

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-04-07
Primary Completion
2025-12-31
Completion
2026-06-30

Countries

  • Malaysia

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07069387 on ClinicalTrials.gov