Capacity Building, Knowledge Enhancement, and Consultative Processes for Development of a Digital Tool (Ni-kshay SETU) to Support the Management of Patients with Tuberculosis: Exploratory Qualitative Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Achieving the target for eliminating tuberculosis (TB) in India by 2025, 5 years ahead of the global target, critically depends on strengthening the capacity of human resources as one of the key components of the health system. Due to the rapid updates of standards and protocols, the human resources for TB health care suffer from a lack of understanding of recent updates and acquiring necessary knowledge.

Despite an increasing focus on the digital revolution in health care, there is no such platform available to deliver the key updates in national TB control programs with easy access. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the development and evolution of a mobile health tool for capacity building of the Indian health system’s workforce to better manage patients with TB.

This study involved two phases. The first phase was based on a qualitative investigation, including personal interviews to understand the basic requirements of staff working in the management of patients with TB, followed by participatory consultative meetings with stakeholders to validate and develop the content for the mobile health app. Qualitative information was collected from the Purbi Singhbhum and Ranchi districts of Jharkhand and Gandhinagar, and from the Surat districts of Gujarat State. In the second phase, a participatory design process was undertaken as part of the content creation and validation exercises.

The first phase collected information from 126 health care staff, with a mean age of 38.4 (SD 8.9) years and average work experience of 8.9 years. The assessment revealed that more than two-thirds of participants needed further training and lacked knowledge of the most current updates to TB program guidelines. The consultative process determined the need for a digital solution in easily accessible formats and ready reckoner content to deliver practical solutions to address operational issues for implementation of the program. Ultimately, the digital platform named Ni-kshay SETU (Support to End Tuberculosis) was developed to support the knowledge enhancement of health care workers.

The development of staff capacity is vital to the success or failure of any program or intervention. Having up-to-date information provides confidence to health care staff when interacting with patients in the community and aids in making quick judgments when handling case scenarios. Ni-kshay SETU represents a novel digital capacity-building platform for enhancing human resource skills in achieving the goal of TB elimination.