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New report published in BMJ Innovations – ‘Padayon’: a new digital health model for diabetes and hypertension in rural Philippines

‘Padayon’ (meaning keep moving forward) is a new digital health model that demonstrates the benefits of task-shifting from traditional skilled health workers to community health teams with the help of reach52 access, our offline-first app that supports a fully integrated solution for low-income patients providing coaching, testing and medicines in one accessible subscription service. This sustainable and scalable model overcomes access barriers by training members of communities as Agents with digital tools customised to work in regions with low internet connectivity. This report spotlights how Padayon was implemented as a new digital health model to tackle diabetes and hypertension in Pototan, Western Visayas, in rural Philippines.
Key Findings 

  • The innovative use of community health teams equipped with ‘offline-first’ mobile health apps enabled the Padayon subscription service to deliver target outputs in terms of patients enrolled, BP and RBS tests provided, and prescribed medicines delivered.

  • The impact of Padayon on patient outcomes also supports the potential of this new digital health model, particularly the improvements in systolic and diastolic BP control for members compared with the baseline.
Impact on healthcare 

  • Equipping networks of community health workers and members with ‘offline-first’ platforms and mobile health apps can overcome traditional access barriers for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low-income and middle-income countries.

  • Integrating coaching, screening and medicines into a simple subscription service delivered by ‘digitised’ community members has the potential to significantly improve health outcomes in low-connectivity, low-resource settings.

  • There is patient willingness to pay for digital subscription services for diabetes and hypertension even in populations on an average daily income of $3–7 per day.

  • Quality health data can be collected through community teams with ‘offline-first’ platforms, enabling remote patient monitoring and analysis for population-level precision healthcare.

Co-authored by reach52’s John Paluyo, reach52 alumni Rich Bryson and Medtronic Labs’ Anne Stake.
Download the report here bmjinnov-2021-000900.full_
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