A central challenge for biomedical engineers seeking to improve healthcare in developing countries is the slow rate at which new technologies are adopted.  It often takes a product twenty years to reach just half of the intended market; and so far, drugs to treat tuberculosis, a disease that kills two million people per year, have been no exception to this rule.  Tuberculosis is curable, but therapy is only successful if patients comply with the treatment regime.  Many patients receive directly observed therapy (DOT), a system in which workers personally monitor whether patients take their pills.  The paper trail connecting DOT workers to the centralized public health system, however, often leads to confusion, inaccuracies, and missing information. 

Innovators in Health, a group based out of MIT, is seeking to develop a new system that will enable public health officials to gather data more efficiently and reliably. First, the group is developing software that will enable DOT workers to use cell phones to transmit information regarding patient symptoms.  With user feedback and appropriate changes, this approach will hopefully allow DOT workers to dispense with written forms and to obtain more information than they would otherwise be able to gather.  Second, the team from MIT has developed a pillbox with many special features.  The box keeps track of when a patient should take medication, and when it is time for patient to take a pill, the box alerts the patient using an alarm, dispenses a pill, records the time at which the pill is removed, and locks to prevent overdosing and pill sharing.  Both the cell phone software and the pillboxes are easy to use, and they have the potential to transform the delivery of tuberculosis therapy in developing countries.     

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