Tel-Me-Box: Validating and Testing a Novel, Low-cost, Real-time Monitoring Device With Hair Level Analysis Among Adherence-challenged Patients

Detailed Summary

Currently available methods to monitor antiretroviral (ARV) adherence to HIV treatment and prevention, such as self-report, pill counts, medication electronic monitoring system (MEMS), and devices which wirelessly monitor adherence in real-time, have multiple limitations, including over-reporting, inability to assess pill ingestion, and size/expense. Our multidisciplinary research team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and in India has designed a new adherence-monitoring device called "Tel-Me-Box" which is small, low-cost, rechargeable, inconspicuous, and could be programmed to deliver tailored real-time adherence reminders following additional hardware modifications. The aim of this study is to modify and validate this discreet Tel-Me-Box (TMB) adherence monitoring and reminder device against hair ARV concentrations as a pharmacologic measure of drug ingestion/adherence, a measure pioneered and validated by our team, with the expectation that this device and intermittent hair monitoring could have widespread utility for HIV and non-HIV adherence science, both in India and globally.

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Interventions