SureAdhere’s Story

SureAdhere’s journey began in 2009, when researchers at the University of California San Diego pioneered the world’s first video Directly Observed Therapy (VDOT) intervention for tuberculosis. Over six years, the team evaluated the approach before spinning the technology off into a social enterprise, and in 2022 SureAdhere joined Dimagi.

Our founding

Collaborating closely with tuberculosis programs in California and Baja California, Mexico, the UCSD team built and rigorously tested VDOT, a way for patients to record and submit videos of taking their medication rather than being observed in person. The mission was simple: make VDOT readily available to TB programs across the globe, even in regions with low connectivity.

The early days

Working with TB providers in resource-limited settings, we developed best practices to help National TB Programs implement VDOT. Those efforts led to a pivotal milestone in 2017, when the World Health Organization conditionally approved video-supported treatment as a replacement for in-person Directly Observed Therapy.

To further validate the approach, the CDC compared video-observed therapy to in-person DOT using the SureAdhere platform. Combined with evidence accumulated since 2010, the results led the WHO to strengthen its guidelines, and in March 2023, on World TB Day, the CDC published an article endorsing VDOT as a comparable alternative to in-person DOT.

Joining forces with Dimagi

In March 2022, SureAdhere was acquired by Dimagi, a leader in high-impact digital health. The acquisition expanded Dimagi’s portfolio of virtual care platforms and accelerated progress toward a shared vision: a world where everyone has access to the essential services they need to thrive. As part of the Dimagi family, SureAdhere continues its mission of transforming treatment adherence and improving outcomes for patients worldwide.

SureAdhere leadership

Dr. Kelly Collins, a trained Global Public Health expert from the University of San Diego, was a key member of the research team who evaluated VDOT worldwide. Her focus has been on developing and evaluating digital health interventions among vulnerable populations in the United States and Mexico. As a social entrepreneur and infectious disease epidemiologist, Kelly’s career mission has been to support the implementation and scale of evidence-based, high-impact digital health interventions globally. Kelly is the former CEO and Co-Founder of SureAdhere Mobile Technology.

Kelly’s 12+ years of experience evaluating digital adherence interventions across 5 continents and 25 countries has resulted in 29 publications, 9 of which she co-authored as an independent researcher prior to the incorporation of SureAdhere. Additionally, as a testament to Kelly’s commitment to building a strong evidence base for digital health interventions which affect global policy decisions, Kelly led SureAdhere while the company supported the implementation of two randomized controlled trials evaluating video-observed therapy for TB treatment adherence published in the Lancet and JAMA Open, studies which informed WHO treatment guidelines for TB in 2017 and 2022.