Freedom TB – An Active Compliance Treatment System (ACTS) for Tuberculosis Adherence and Treatment

A mobile based system to improve Tuberculosis treatment compliance

Project start date : 01/04/2014

Last updated : 08/07/2022

Beneficiary country : India Uganda

Healthcare themes targeted

  • Infectious diseases
  • HIV/AIDS

Fields of application

  • Health professional training
  • Information, education and communication for behaviour change (IEC)
  • Patient monitoring and medical data

Stage of development

  • Routine project/operational

Financing method

  • Public (grant/subsidies, call for proposals/call for tender, etc.)
  • NGO
  • Government agency (USAID, etc.)
  • Other (please specify)

Area where the project is utilised

  • International (in several countries)

Economic model(s)

  • Subsidies
  • Advertising
  • Donations

Target audience

  • Healthcare professionals and structures (hospitals, healthcare centres/clinics, health networks)
  • Patient family/entourage
  • Other

Project objectives

  • Decreased mortality
  • Decreased morbidity
  • Reduced suffering

Materials used

  • Cellular (mobile) phone
  • Smartphone
  • Computer
  • Connected objects

Technologies used

  • Internet
  • Geolocation
  • Mobile app (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, HTML5, etc.)
  • Other (please specify)

Offline use

Yes

Open source

Yes

Open data

Yes

Independent evaluation

Yes, evaluated independently

About the sponsor

ZMQ Development

ZMQ is a “Technology for Development” social enterprise, which develops and implements practical technology linked tools [&] solutions to empower communities by providing timely information and connecting them with life-saving services, thus achieving sustainable development. There is a huge gap in provisioning information and services to rural, under-privileged and isolated communities. And this has been for hundreds of years. With the advent of technology, especially, it is seen that these technologies can bring in transformative changes by substantially improving accessibility, affordability and effectiveness of social programs, thus enabling human development. ZMQ’s theory of change is to provide “information [&] services” to isolated, marginalized and rural communities in a timely and accessible way, which often makes difference between life and death.

ZMQ works on multiple social issues using technology which are healthcare, education and livelihood generation. ZMQ’s approach to solve these social problems is based on a system-changing approach rather than mere technology enablement approach. This can be explained by stating the fact that various policies and their processes relate to critical issues like health, education and livelihood were designed some 30-50 years back by the national or statement. These processes have are based on ‘Top-down Manual Model’ with a strong observation/supervision approach. This older approach makes the solution exclusive (non-inclusive), target audiences are treated as mere beneficiaries and the solution works in isolation. With the ubiquity of mobile networks and the reach of cell-phones in the hands of communities, ZMQ uses this system-changing approach by integrating communities as part of the solution, making an inclusive model, where target audience are part of the solution (stakeholders) and works in a holistic manner. This approach of ‘Fully-technology linked community model’ (also a ‘Bottom-up Technology Model’) empowers communities and give them more control of information and services, which they never earlier had.

Using this methodology, ZMQ has been a pioneer in using mobile technology and has accomplished successfully over 80 behavior change projects using mobile phones and also created over 25 system changing solutions on:

mHealth – HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Maternal [&] Child Health, Immunization, Polio, Family Planning, Mental Health;
mEducation – Entry level literacy tools for out of school children; Changing the Madarsa education
Livelihood Generation – Skills development for women, Your Story Telling System
Diversity and Inclusiveness, Human Rights – IncLudo Program


ZMQ’s mission is to provide affordable services and solutions to rural and marginalized communities to enhance their lives, thus increasing their standard of living using mobile technology. ZMQ’s key approach is “High Impact – Low Cost” model, recognized world-wide. Our objective is to bring down the cost per beneficiary under one rupee, which we have successfully retained for years by keeping it to Rupee 0.40 to Rupee 0.55 (40 to 55 paisa) for all of our scaled up projects. The key to the success of ZMQ programs is accessibility, affordability and effectiveness. This is why ZMQ is often referred as “One Rupee” technology company, based on ‘Gandhian model’.

Sector : Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

Country of origin : India

Contact : Sponsor website Project website

Partners

  • Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP)

    Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

  • India

    Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

  • National TB and Leprosy Program (NTLP)

    Industrial (Startups, enterprises, etc.)

  • Uganda

    Industrial (Startups, enterprises, etc.)

  • Microsoft

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)

  • Vodafone

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)