Briefly, each of the three components of Project M addressed a specific barrier for people seeking care and for health care workers managing care.
1. TxtAlert: Reminders for HIV clinic appointments were sent to patients’ mobile phones as text messages. Showing up to your HIV clinic appointment largely correlates with anti-retro viral treatment (ART) adherence. In June 2007, TxtAlert, an SMS-based automated ART clinic appointment reminder system was piloted in partnership with Right to Care at the Themba Lethu Clinic, the largest privately funded ART treatment site in South Africa. TxtAlert is a web service that is linked to the electronic medical record system.
Clinic appointment reminders are sent to patients who are receiving ARVs, both two weeks and one day before their scheduled appointments. Text messages are also sent one day after the appointment to either thank the patient for coming or to alert them of a missed appointment and encourage rescheduling.
2. SocialTxt: A mass mobile messaging campaign was launched to raise HIV awareness, and directed people to the National AIDS Helpline. In October 2007, a mass text message HIV awareness campaign was launched with the so-called SocialTxt technology developed by the Praekelt Foundation.
One million text messages were sent everyday to mobile phone users throughout South Africa that contained key information about HIV and TB and directed mobile phone users to a free National AIDS Helpline.
The campaign resulted in an impressive 300% increase in calls to the helpline, from 1000 calls a day to 3000-4000 calls a day. Since the project launch, over 685 million PCM messages were sent to the helpline. Upon receiving the PCM message, staff at the helpline, who are HIV patients themselves, offer counseling and direct callers to HIV and TB testing centers.
3. HIV Self-Test Kit: Currently in development is a home-based HIV test kit that has the option of calling the National AIDS Hotline for guidance and assistance. The hope is that this kit will enable South Africans to perform an HIV test, in the privacy of their own homes, with the option of calling a counselor at the National AIDS Helpline via cell phone.