Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107959

Scott R. Ikeda¹, Kaylan Baban¹, Deeangelee Pooran¹, Nils Hennig, MD/PhD¹, George Carter¹, Debbie S. Indyk, PhD, MS², and Henry Sacks, MD/PhD¹. (1) Thomas C. Chalmers Clinical Trials Unit, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1042, New York, NY 10029, 646.637.1077, scott.ikeda@mssm.edu, (2) Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 19 East 98th Street (Box 1045), New York, NY 10029

For reasons of access, affordability and preference, many people worldwide rely on traditional medicine for HIV care, prompting the World Health Organization to call for greater research of these methods. Siddha medicine, indigenous to India, is widely used amongst Tamil-speaking people, particularly in Tamil Nadu, a state accounting for nearly 45% of India's HIV/AIDS cases. As part of a long-term goal to conduct evidence-based clinical trials of Siddha medicine as an HIV therapy, we assessed the medical record-keeping system of Gandeepam, a Siddha hospital in Tamil Nadu which treats approximately 200 HIV/AIDS patients and has reported success in improving their health. The records of 32 HIV positive patients were randomly selected from 87 available records. Patient intake data, adherence to treatment, symptoms, Siddha diagnosis, and a system of unique patient identifiers used in a previous study were documented and evaluated. Findings indicate 100% of the reviewed medical charts reported the patient's age, sex and marital status. Income, education, and occupation were reported in 70%, 66.7% and 50% of the charts respectively. Prior allopathic HIV treatment was reported in 53.1% of records, while HIV diagnosis by ELISA was reported in 68.8% of charts. 5.9% of patients were fully adherent to treatment. 12.5% of records contained Siddha diagnostic information. In 100% of charts, patients' identifying information was linked to their unique study number within the chart. Recommendations for improvement to Gandeepam's medical record system based on these findings will promote continued collaboration with Gandeepam, and rigorous clinical studies of Siddha medicine.

Learning Objectives: