Leishmaniasis is a neglected, chronic tropical disease of underserved communities in 98 countries worldwide. Limited access of affected communities to diagnosis and supervised treatment are major contributing factors to the perpetuation and propagation of this neglected disease. We propose to use innovative information and communication technology to bridge this access gap between rural communities and the public health care system by empowering community health volunteers (CHVs) to identify cases and monitor treatment and clinical outcome of cutaneous leishmaniasis in communities in endemic areas of Colombia. Using the informatics structure developed by Distributed Health Labs of UC San Diego, the comprehensive research experience in leishmaniasis of the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Mdicas, CIDEIM and the software development expertise of the I2T group of Icesi University in Colombia, the research team will: 1.) Develop mHealth applications to identify cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis and monitor treatment and clinical outcome via community health volunteer (CHV) engagement; 2.) Evaluate acceptance of the diagnostic, treatment and clinical monitoring mHealth applications for cutaneous leishmaniasis by CHVs; 3.) Evaluate the performance of the mHealth tools for case detection and monitoring of adherence and response to treatment by CHVs, and their impact on reporting to the public health system. The results of this project will reduce morbidity, improve epidemiologic surveillance and reporting, and enable effective use of limited resources, as well as provide the technical and evidence basis for use of mHealth tools for NTDs in underserved communities in Colombia.
Case detection, adherence to treatment and clinical follow up of cutaneous leishmaniasis in rural communities of Colombia are logistically challenging and often unachievable. True prevalence is unknown, and the rates of adherence and response to treatment are undetermined. We will develop, validate and then evaluate mHealth applications that will empower community health volunteers to identify and monitor the treatment and clinical response of individuals with cutaneous leishmaniasis in rural communities, and inform the public health system through mobile technology.
