Tuberculosis is a disease where there are strict guidelines to be followed, especially during home or hospital-based isolation for infectious patients. During this time both monitoring and treatment would be effective not only for the patients but also the visitors by reducing the chance of droplet transmission.

A research team from John Hopkins University School of Medicine created a cost-effective and patient-centric smartphone video-based app, which would substitute the daily in-person visits by a healthcare worker required for TB therapy, known as DOT (Directly Observed Therapy).

"In an era when we are focused on patient-centered care, having to meet a health provider every single day is logistically challenging and can be personally invasive," said Dr. Maunank Shah, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Samuel Holzman, M.D., a research fellow in the department of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said, “We believe video DOT offers an alternative that appears to be as effective as an in-person daily visits by healthcare workers to assure compliance with drug treatment but also empowers patients to manage their TB without added stress”.

Based on a licensed agreement between eMOCHA Mobile Health Inc. and  Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Maunank Shah and the university are entitled to royalties on this technology.