Feasibility of tuberculosis treatment monitoring by video directly observed therapy: a binational pilot study

Although directly observed therapy (DOT) is recommended worldwide for monitoring anti-tuberculosis treatment, transportation and personnel requirements limit its use.

To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of 'video DOT' (VDOT), which allows patients to record and transmit medication ingestion via videos watched remotely by health care providers to document adherence.

We conducted a single-arm trial among tuberculosis (TB) patients in San Diego, California, USA, (n = 43) and Tijuana, Mexico (n = 9) to represent high- and low-resource settings. Pre-/post-treatment interviews assessed participant characteristics and experiences. Adherence was defined as the proportion of observed doses to expected doses.

The mean age was 37 years (range 18-86), 50% were male, and 88% were non-Caucasian. The mean duration of VDOT use was 5.5 months (range 1-11). Adherence was similar in San Diego (93%) and Tijuana (96%). Compared to time on in-person DOT, 92% preferred VDOT, 81% thought VDOT was more confidential, 89% never/rarely had problems recording videos, and 100% would recommend VDOT to others. Seven (13%) participants were returned to in-person DOT and six (12%) additional participants had their phones lost, broken or stolen.

VDOT was feasible and acceptable, with high adherence in both high- and low-resource settings. Efficacy and cost-effectiveness studies are needed.