NDLI: Healthcare providers’ and community stakeholders’ perception of using drones for tuberculosis diagnosis in Nepal: an exploratory qualitative study

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Dixit, Kritika Rai, Bhola Majhi, Govind Paudel, Rajan Dhital, Raghu Acharya, Shraddha Budhathoki, Ganga Ram Poudel, Puskar Gurung, Suman Chandra Subedi, Bishal Lamsal, Pravin Pudasaini, Uttam Small, Peter Meier, Patrick Annerstedt, Kristi Sidney Caws, Maxine
Abstract	Background In rural Nepal, poor road and transport networks and few testing laboratories impede tuberculosis diagnosis. A drone transport system was established to transport sputum samples to laboratories with advanced molecular diagnostic machines – GeneXpert MTB/RIF. This study explored the perceptions of using drones for tuberculosis diagnosis among community stakeholders, female community health volunteers, and healthcare providers from communities with drones implemented and without drone programs. Methods In December 2019, we conducted focus group discussions in two drone-implemented and three without drone programs. We purposively selected 40 participants: Female community health volunteers (n=16), community stakeholders (n=18), and healthcare providers (n=6). Focus group discussions employed semi-structured questions, which were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. Codebook thematic analysis was performed and charted using three levels of the socioecological model: individual, community, and health system. Results We identified four themes (i) Trust in drones underpins successful use for tuberculosis diagnosis; (ii) Drone-based sample transport optimised connectivity and accessibility for people with tuberculosis and healthcare providers; (iii) Drones create opportunities to improve community and health system, and (iv) External factors impede the use of drones to facilitate tuberculosis diagnosis. The study reported, at an individual level, people’s trust in drones mainly through community-based events. For local healthcare providers, drones reduce transport time, opportunity costs, and immediate cash costs of transport. At the community level, drone use creates opportunities to increase the skills of local people as drone pilots. At the health system level, drone transport increases efficient sputum sample delivery and provides opportunities to transport medicines and other biomedical samples. Perceived challenges of using drones were adverse weather, limitations in skilled human resources, and financial resources to operate drones sustainably. Conclusions Healthcare providers, female community health volunteers, and community stakeholders reported high levels of trust in drones and perceived their use for tuberculosis diagnosis and care to substantially benefit people with tuberculosis and providers in rural Nepal. There was a high level of demand for application to other healthcare services and wider geographical coverage, demonstrating drones as a potential tool for enhancing access to healthcare in geographically remote communities.
Related Links	https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12913-024-11824-0.pdf
Ending Page	14
Page Count	14
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14726963
DOI	10.1186/s12913-024-11824-0
Journal	BMC Health Services Research
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	24
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2024-12-04
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Public Health Health Administration Health Informatics Nursing Research Tuberculosis Drone GeneXpert MTB/RIF Active case finding Nepal
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Health Policy

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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