The World Health Organization (WHO), in conjunction with the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), has developed a global tuberculosis program, based on an interactive website with a toolkit that works in support of national tuberculosis strategies.
WHO is aware that TB outbreaks require new approaches to digital tools. “Digital technologies present novel ways to improve patient-centred care or to make better use of resources by TB programmes,” WHO said in the statement.
The use of technological tools is critical at a time like the present, with the health emergency arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, WHO recognizes that there are barriers to their effective implementation and acknowledges them as a challenge in implementing and expanding digital tools for the care of diseases such as tuberculosis.
The solution proposed by WHO in conjunction with TDR is an implementation research toolkit focused on digital technologies to combat tuberculosis. “IR provides an important approach to evaluating how innovations like digital technologies can be used to overcome challenges in TB care, and to generate evidence that can guide their future introduction and scale-up in other settings. The content of the toolkit is also relevant to the application of digital technologies for other health conditions, including COVID-19,” explains WHO.
The toolkit is intended to build capacity in RI to provide sufficient knowledge for the use of these digital media in TB care. The six modules included are as follows:
- Preparing for implementation research
- Developing IR objectives and questions
- Research methods
- Planning and conducting IR
- Knowledge translation
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese Anti-TB Association provided training for Malaysia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. “The WHO Global TB Programme and TDR are helping countries to collect evidence on innovative digital technologies to improve TB prevention and care”, explained Tereza Kasaeva Director of the WHO Global TB Programme. She also mentioned that these tools and the training they received will be useful for the health systems of those countries to help organize new health interventions.
