Published on: August 5, 2011

BBC news highlights a study published in the Lancet showing that text messages sent to health care workers in Kenya improved adherence to malaria treatment regime from around 20% to 50%:

kiwanja_san_francisco_texting_11Health workers in the study were sent text messages twice a day, five days a week, for six months.

An example of the sort of sent was: “advise mother to finish all AL [artemether-lumefantrine] doses over three days even if the child feels better after two doses”.

At the beginning of the study, 20.5% of children were correctly managed, this increased to 49.6% after the six month study.

Is there a lesson here for the palliative care community in India which should recognize that poor advocacy has been its biggest weakness over the last decade and a half?

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