What is the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of using digital health technologies to improve treatment adherence and outcomes in patients with tuberculosis?

Non-adherence to tuberculosis (TB) therapy increases the risk of treatment failure, leading to poor clinical outcomes and a significant financial burden to healthcare services. Digital health technologies may offer innovative solutions to this, but studies evaluating their utility remain sparse. To address this research gap, a systematic review was undertaken to evaluate the existing evidence for the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of using digital health technologies to improve TB treatment adherence and clinical outcomes. Articles were retrieved by systematically searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov, World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Trials Registry Platform, WHO publications and the grey literature. Technologies under consideration were short message …