New Tools and Approaches to End TB

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in healthcare are growing exponentially, with new diagnostics, treatments, and technology, supporting patients, health care providers, and policy makers across a wide range of health topics/diseases. Tuberculosis has plagued humanity for millennia, but research into this disease has often lagged behind other disease areas. Many people with TB are still diagnosed with tools that were developed in the 1800s, most of the drugs widely used were developed decades ago, and TB programs generally use antiquated paper-based systems to track the disease and report outcomes. For too long, a one-size-fits-all approach has been promoted for TB, yet recently, this has begun to change.

When new tools are developed, they often struggle to find uptake due to difficult processes for their evaluation and recommendation by health agencies, regulations that limit innovation, and unambitious national responses, and they do not always fit the context. However, there are various promising new tools that are being piloted by innovative partners in the TB response, while innovation can also come via changing processes and new approaches of delivering care.

In this Special Issue, we are calling for papers that document the testing, evaluation, implementation, or scaling up of new tools and approaches that will help to accelerate the global response to end TB. Submissions based on work that originates in high-burden TB countries are especially encouraged. We are looking for original research and perspectives on a wide range of new tools and approaches across the TB care cascade, such as digital tools, artificial intelligence, connectivity solutions, and mHealth applications, and real-time data for planning and surveillance, to push the TB response into modern times.

Dr. Mirjam I. Bakker
Dr. Jacob Creswell
Dr. Sode Matiku
Dr. Masja Straetemans
Mr. Luan Vo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Tuberculosis
• New tools
• Process innovation
• Digital tools
• mHealth
• Connectivity