REMIND (HIV)
Remind or REMIND-HIV was our first clinical trial in which we investigated the effect of real time medication monitoring (RTMM) and short message service (SMS) texts in combination with tailored feedback on adherence to treatment. The project took 42 months and we managed to recruit 249 participants that were randomized in three arms: (1) RTMM arm in which participants used a digital adherence tool that comprises of a pillbox that reminds to take medication, (2) SMS arm in which participants received a reminder SMS and a monitoring SMS asking whether medication was taken or (30 the control arm comprising of standard care. We did not find a significant effect on mean adherence, however, we found that the percentage of participants reaching 90% adherence was higher in both intervention arms.
A large component of the project consisted of capacity building whereby a PhD candidate, Kennedy Ngowi, conducted research and was registered at the University of Amsterdam. A total of four publications have come out of the study and a fifth is in preparation. We have also been able to build a team for conducting mixed methods research with a current focus on using digital tools.
