Table 2.
Variable costs for the mHealth intervention per patient per year in the trial and at scale
| Costs per patient in the trial | ||
|---|---|---|
| IVR call/patient (cost/30 sec call=1.50 INR, as quoted by the mobile-solution agency for the trial) | 1.50 INR/week×52 weeks | 78.00 |
| SMS reminder/patient (cost of 1 SMS reminder=0.2 INR, as quoted by the mobile-solution agency for the trial) | 0.20 INR/week×52 weeks | 10.40 |
| Counsellora (1 hour/patient/year, salary=96,000 INR/year) | 96,000 INR/year | 38.00 |
| Variable cost per patient for the (IVR call+SMS reminder)/year in the trial | 126.4 (2.04 USD) | |
| Variable cost per patient for the IVR call only/year in the trial | 116.00 (1.87 USD) | |
| Variable cost per patient for the SMS reminder only/year in the trial | 48.40 (0.78 USD) | |
| Costs per patient if total patients >10,000 | ||
| IVR call/patient (cost/30 sec call=0.24 INR, as quoted by the mobile-solution agency) | 0.24 INR/week×52 weeks | 12.48 |
| SMS reminder/patient (cost of 1 SMS reminder=0.19 INR, as quoted by the mobile-solution agency) | 0.19 INR/week×52 weeks | 9.88 |
| Counsellora (1 hour/patient/year, Salary=96,000 INR/year) | 96,000 INR/year | 38.00 |
| Variable cost per patient for the (IVR call+SMS reminder)/year | 60.36 (0.97 USD) | |
| Variable cost per patient for the IVR call only/year | 50.48 (0.81 USD) | |
| Variable cost per patient for the SMS reminder only/year | 47.88 (0.77 USD) |
a
Counsellor diaries indicated that the counsellors spent about 5 minutes/patient/every month to discuss the application. The counsellors’ time for the mHealth intervention therefore amounted to 60 min/patient/year (Salary: 8,000 INR/month); 1 USD=61.95 INR as of 26 December 2013.