Information and Communication Technology for Antiretroviral Therapy in Developing Countries

Mark Spohr, MD, MEASURE Evaluation, John Snow, Inc., 1616 N. Fort Myer Dr., 11th Floor, Arlington, VA 22209, 703-528-7474, mspohr@jsi.com

International aid agencies are starting rapid scale up of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for AIDS patients in developing countries. This is the largest and most complex public health intervention ever undertaken. Information and communication technologies will play an important role in managing therapy and in program monitoring and evaluation. We have undertaken a survey of information systems that are available for ART and evaluated their capabilities. We will present the results of the inventory including the strengths and weaknesses of the various systems. As a result of this analysis, we have developed a plan for enhancing existing systems to facilitate their use in developing countries. The ART system in these resource poor environments must take into account different health system delivery structures, therapeutic advice to providers, and program monitoring and evaluation. A reference design for a software ART system and early experience with the implementation will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

1. List the requirements for a competent antiretroviral therapy information system.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation

Information and Communication Technology in Health Information Systems: US and International Experience

The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA