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Category: HIV Care and Treatment

Haiti’s Electronic Medical Records System iSanté Proves Useful Tool to Improve Patient Outcomes

Post categories: Haiti Health Information Systems Health Systems Strengthening HIV and STI Prevention HIV Care and Treatment
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For nearly a decade, iSanté has allowed providers to share information among care team members and health professionals.

For nearly a decade, iSanté has allowed providers to share information among care team members and health professionals.

Over the past several years, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has invested heavily in health systems and clinical data analyses in low-income countries around the world, in its efforts to support the care and treatment of those affected by HIV and AIDS.

With the support of PEPFAR, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), in 2005, the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), together with Haiti’s Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population (MSPP) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), developed and implemented iSanté — an electronic medical record system to capture and report information on patients living with HIV and AIDS.

For nearly a decade, this system has allowed providers to document HIV patient care, look up patient care histories, and share information between care team members and health professionals.

The MSPP has been particularly concerned with patient adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and treatment failure due to a number of factors, including the 2010 Haiti earthquake. While iSanté has gotten kudos in Haiti for storing and linking patient data, three recent papers, lead-authored by I-TECH Research and Evaluation Advisor Nancy Puttkammer, have illustrated the potential of using this data source to identify and help solve the challenges of adherence and patient attrition.

  • “Before and After the Earthquake: A Case Study of Attrition from the HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Program in Haiti,” published in Global Health Action in August 2014, compared attrition from the national HIV ART program at two large public-sector hospitals where I-TECH works. One site was less than 30 km from the epicenter of the devastating earthquake of January 2010, while the other site was outside of the area strongly affected by the earthquake. Surprisingly, the paper showed that attrition improved after the earthquake in the site closest to the epicenter. This finding underscores the resilience of patients and providers, and contributes evidence that it is possible to maintain continuity of HIV services even in the context of a complex humanitarian emergency.
  • “Patient Attrition from the HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Program at Two Hospitals in Haiti,” currently in press at the Pan American Journal of Public Health, examines ART attrition at the same two hospitals, during the period 2005-2011. The study found higher risk of attrition among patients who lived farther away from the hospital, who started on non-standard ART regimens, who did not receive ART adherence counseling before initiating ART, and who rapidly started ART following their enrollment in HIV care and treatment. The findings suggest opportunities for several quality improvement interventions at the two hospitals.

“This research has provided a valuable contribution in documenting health outcomes and encouraging improvement in the ART program in Haiti,” says Dr. Scott Barnhart, Professor of General Internal Medicine and Global Health at the University of Washington. “We are at the dawn of translating large investments in EMRs into useful data for improving the care of patients, as well as supporting important pub

KenyaEMR Implemented at More Than 340 Sites in Under Two Years

Post categories: Health Information Systems Health Systems Strengthening HIV Care and Treatment Kenya
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The I-TECH Kenya team celebrates implementing KenyaEMR at more than 340 facilities -- along with a congratulations card from I-TECH HQ.

The I-TECH Kenya team celebrates implementing KenyaEMR at more than 340 facilities — along with a congratulations card from I-TECH HQ.

A shifting government structure, power outages, and even the threat of crocodiles didn’t deter the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) from implementing the electronic medical records system KenyaEMR at more than 340 clinics and district hospitals across Kenya.

One of the largest EMR rollouts in Africa, this work was supported by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

When PEPFAR care and treatment partners in Kenya identified lack of timely and complete patient data as a major barrier to effective HIV/AIDS patient management, I-TECH and in-country partners set out to design and develop KenyaEMR, expanding on the OpenMRS platform to build an EMR system to collect health data and improve patient care.

These efforts were first led by I-TECH Kenya’s then-Country Director, Dr. Patrick Odawo, and were assumed by his successor, Dr. Willis Akhwale, supported by dedicated teams in Nairobi and at Seattle headquarters.

Challenges along the way

The KenyaEMR team wades across the Turkwel River.

The KenyaEMR team wades across the Turkwel River.

This was no small feat – there were many obstacles overcome to equip the sites in just under two years.  Among these were the devolution of the Kenyan government to a county-based government halfway through the implementation, lack of reliable power, and establishing server rooms in facilities that were never designed to protect electronic systems.

In fact, Implementation Assistant Wilfex Terer remembers obtaining an escort and wading across a crocodile-infested river to reach a health facility in North Rift Valley, one of the most remote areas of Kenya.

“Because of high insecurity in the southern parts of Turkana County, we hired two Kenya police reservists to provide security escort,” says Terer. “We then left our vehicle and waded across the Turkwel River to a health facility vehicle awaiting us on the other side. After some minutes we arrived at the facility in wet clothing.”

Implementing the system

KenyaEMR is a customized system that supports the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS. The system was designed and developed by I-TECH and partners in 2012, following Standards and Guidelines developed by I-TECH in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Health.

The pre-implementation phase comprised engaging stakeholders, specifically the Kenyan Ministry of Health, forming technical working groups to share strategies, and assessing the networking and hardware at the facilities.

Particularly important to effective implementations were sensitization meetings with county, hospital, and facility administrators to build their awareness of the benefits of KenyaEMR and to obtain their support for its implementation and operations.

During implementation, the team purchased hardware, installed intranets, and set up and deployed the software. This phase also included mentorship and on-the-job training: I-TECH supports use of the system by building the capacity of Health Managers and through on-site training to mentors, who then train staff at local facilities.

This approach to capacity building allowed I-TECH to maximize training time, build local capacity, and ensure sustainability when staff transition to other facilities. To date, I-TECH has oriented 625 Health Managers and trained 1,409 system users and champion mentors.

The future of KenyaEMR

Wired for a training in North Rift.

Wired for a training in North Rift.

Post-implementation, I-TECH is providing ongoing software maintenance, support for use of system, and guidance on data use for patient monitoring.  I-TECH is working on expanding the functionality to handle pharmacy and laboratory orders, as well as additional functions at the facility.

“The main focus now is on improving meaningful use of data and defining exactly what that is,” says Steven Wanyee, Implementation and Interoperability Manager.

One example of “meaningful use” is that physicians and other health workers can now see a summarized profile before meeting with a patient, which helps improve quality of care and physician decision making.

Likewise, at the policy level, an electronic database means that various stakeholders in Kenya can collect public health data to assist them in assessing needs and making broad-reaching policy decisions.

“EMRs have been seen as very useful in discussions about the HIV treatment cascade,” says Wanyee, and there is interest in finding out how KenyaEMR can help to identify gaps.

“This project does more than just save space dedicated to paper records,” he continues. “It helps to inform and improve patient care at every level.”

Collaborative Creates ‘Culture of Quality Improvement’ in Jamaica

Post categories: Caribbean HIV Care and Treatment Quality Improvement
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A JaQIC team's storyboard illustrates inspiration points and accomplishments.

A JaQIC team’s storyboard illustrates inspiration points and accomplishments on the journey toward quality improvement. Storyboards are a creative way for teams to learn from one another.

Despite strong clinical capacity, systemic barriers may prevent local care teams from executing CD4 count and HIV viral load tests. These tests are critical for monitoring the health of people living with HIV — and their response to antiretroviral therapy (ART).

In response to this challenge, in October 2013, ten treatment sites from the four Regional Health Authorities kicked off the Jamaica Quality Improvement Collaborative, or JaQIC (Ja-quick).

The collaborative is led by the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), in partnership with the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART), and supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The project is coordinated by I-TECH Senior Quality Improvement Advisor Shay Bluemer-Miroite, with Dr. Chris Behrens, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, Family Medicine & Global Health at the University of Washington, serving as clinical advisor.

“The aim of the project was to significantly increase CD4 and viral load testing by March 2014, and it succeeded in that in all ten sites,” said Bluemer-Miroite, noting that within six months, JaQIC was seeing measurable results. (In fact, from baseline to March 2014, sites improved incidence of CD4 testing by up to 34 percentage points.)

“But,” she added, “the collaborative has achieved so much more than that.”

Working Together to Improve Quality

Building on the existing investment in training and capacity development, quality improvement collaboratives such as JaQIC empower frontline health care workers to implement best practices and improve quality of care.

They also rely on the knowledge of existing clinical care teams, who are most familiar with health systems challenges and best positioned to identify solutions to resolve them. These challenges run the gamut from the availability of patient forms, to problems with transport of samples, to equipment failures during sample processing.

Through the collaborative, sites identify potential problems that can crop up at each step in the process, test these ideas via plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles, and share learning. As JaQIC teams gathered during a series of Learning Sessions to “share seamlessly, steal shamelessly,” they not only improved the quality of care, they also built excitement for quality improvement and demonstrated that frontline staff can make impactful changes.

Far-Reaching Impact

“Programs struggle with obtaining the data to prove that they are having an impact,” said Bluemer-Miroite. “Through the collaborative, tracking data became particularly meaningful to the health care teams – because they were the ones who were using the data. By tracking patient-level data from the outset, it’s easy to see how the quality of care is being affected, and it increases the data quality, too.”

The success of the program has led to the buy-in of the Jamaican Ministry of Health (MOH) – so much so that the MOH has added the role of QI Coach to its Treatment, Care and Support Officers (TCSOs), and all of the collaborative’s activities will fully transition to the MOH in December.

The collaborative has also spread to four additional countries in the Caribbean (CaReQIC): Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, and Suriname, which have joined a new group from Jamaica to form CaReQIC. While gearing up for CaReQIC Learning Sessions, coordinators realized that more foot soldiers would be needed to liaise with the sites directly, so I-TECH helped to develop training for a cadre of QI Coaches in all five countries.

The effects of this program will be far-reaching, even after its transition.

“What’s really exciting about JaQIC is its potential for a sustained impact on multiple levels,” said Dr. Behrens. “JaQIC has dramatically increased rates of CD4 and viral load testing via systemic changes that are likely to persist into the future. More importantly, however, JaQIC has introduced a ‘culture’ of quality improvement in the region that has been enthusiastically adopted across a broad spectrum of local and regional stakeholders.”

Stories of Success from Ethiopia: The Tsadkane Holy Water Well

Post categories: Ethiopia Health Systems Strengthening HIV Care and Treatment
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Samuel Tadessa at the Tsadkane monastery.

Samuel Tadesse found consolation at the Tsadkane monastery, but he saw that more needed to be done.

The following is the first in a three-part series of I-TECH success stories from Ethiopia.

Samuel Tadesse discovered he was infected with HIV in 2004, after undergoing a routine test as part of a U.S. visa application. He spent the next four years feeling utterly hopeless.

Although not a church-going man, Samuel visited one of the country’s largest holy water springs as a last resort: The Tsadkane monastery, located within the Amhara region of Western Ethiopia.

The holy water site is visited daily by up to 5,000 pilgrims, all in search of a cure to their ailments by way of prayer, holy water consumption, and bathing. The majority of these pilgrims are extremely ill, and a large group have been diagnosed with advanced HIV/AIDS.

Samuel immediately experienced consolation and decided to live at the site of the well. However, he soon realized that many of the people living by the well, waiting for a miracle, were dying. He also understood that the strict diet of holy water and a single daily portion of dried barleycorn flour was inadequate nutrition for those who were sick. He resolved to try to improve the welfare of the stricken community.

Samuel’s fundraising efforts, launched at local bus stations, quickly gained momentum, and soon he was able to buy and distribute bread and blankets to the dying pilgrims at Tsadkane. In just a few months, the number of people benefiting from the new funds had grown from 115 to 1,200.

But Samuel knew that blankets, bread, and water were only a short-term solution.

“I realized that many of these people were dying,” says Samuel. “It was frightening because there was no medical care, and I knew many more would die if we did not create a link between the well and a nearby health center.”

So he approached the local Church.

Historically, the relationship between medical science and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian community — the country’s largest religious group — has been contentious. When the AIDS epidemic began to spread rapidly in Ethiopia, any discussion in favor of antiretroviral treatment (ART) was discouraged. According to the Church, there was only one treatment for HIV patients: faith, prayer, and holy water.

The Church donated a small thatched hut to shelter HIV victims, but despite Samuel’s commitment, he didn’t have the capacity to accommodate the ever-growing numbers.

A Successful I-TECH Partnership

The facilities at Tsadkane

The facilities at Tsadkane provide HIV testing, counseling, treatment, and care.

It wasn’t long before the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) learned about the growing HIV community living at the Tsadkane holy water site and the urgent need to scale up Samuel’s operation. In response, I-TECH formed a partnership with the Ministry of Health in 2008, based on a commitment to promoting access and adherence to ART as well as providing care and support services for HIV-positive people seeking a holy water cure.

Between 2009 and 2013, with funds made available through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), I-TECH provided more than US$200,000 in support to the shelter. During this period, 1,370 HIV patients were successfully rehabilitated after being brought to the shelter in a critical health state.

“I-TECH was a lifeline for me,” says Samuel. “I was feeling very overwhelmed and frightened at how many people were going to die as a result of limited support to people with HIV. Up to five people a day were dying in my arms.”

With I-TECH support, Samuel was now able to offer and deliver extensive counseling on HIV testing and ART services to the community of people that had gathered in search of his help.  “It was a huge relief” to have I-TECH’s support, says Samuel.

Within a year, the project had sourced a hub of buildings as a base for the rehabilitative shelter 5 kilometers from the holy water site and was accommodating a steady influx of HIV patients. HIV testing, counseling, ART treatment, and care had been made available to the holy well community.

Fighting Stigma and Discrimination

The shelter community is widely recognized for having succeeded in empowering a large HIV community to overcome fear and stigma and reach out for ART.

With the support of I-TECH management and training, the shelter has been one of the few places in Ethiopia to offer rehabilitation and care to those who have been excluded from their family and community because of their HIV status, says Misti McDowell, Country Director for I-TECH Ethiopia.

“Tsadekane has provided support and acceptance to people living with HIV when so many others have rejected them,” she says. “The shelter offers them a safe place to receive health services as well as working with their home communities to reduce stigma and discrimination.”

Strengthening the Community

The bakery at Tsadkane provides nutritious food.

The bakery at Tsadkane supplies both nutritious food and income for patients.

To help patients rehabilitate, I-TECH funded the installation of a bakery, a dairy, a restaurant, and a seed-oil extraction mill to offer income-generating activities. The aim of these activities was to provide economic empowerment and livelihood training for patients so that they could have an active role in their home community.

The Tsadkane shelter also prioritizes the security and welfare of children born to HIV-infected mothers by providing a dormitory, a playground, schooling, and immediate HIV testing of all children entering the shelter.

According to Dr. Manuel Kassaye,I-TECH’s Care and Treatment Programs Director, “I-TECH played a key role in transforming an informal community group into a community-based organization dedicated to increasing access to HIV care services including mental and spiritual health, as well as increasing the number of ART users.”

To help the shelter improve its service delivery, I-TECH conducted an organizational capacity assessment in 2012.

Another Story of Hope

In early 2014, Tsige Birhanu, 38, arrived at the shelter center on a stretcher. She was weak and emaciated; many feared she would not survive another week. She had been sleeping on a plastic sheet by the well for nine months. Like many pilgrims, she had been subsisting on a diet of holy water and small amounts of barleycorn flour. After suffering frequent bouts of vomiting and diarrhea,she was carried to a nearby hospital where she was diagnosed with TB and HIV.

With a fast deployment of care, nutrition, and ART at the shelter, Tsige’s health improved dramatically in just two months. “The shelter saved me,” she says. “Because of the treatment and care I received, I can now look forward to living a normal, healthy life. …Living, working, and serving here has given me a renewed sense of purpose and confidence.”

I-TECH and DGH Leadership Visit I-TECH Ethiopia, Speak at Outpatient Clinic Launch

Post categories: Ethiopia Health Systems Strengthening HIV and STI Prevention HIV Care and Treatment
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Dancers prepare to perform at the University of Gondar's Diamond Jubilee.

Dancers prepare to perform at the University of Gondar’s Diamond Jubilee.

Earlier this month, a distinguished group from the University of Washington’s International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and Department of Global Health (DGH) visited Addis Ababa and Gondar, Ethiopia, for several days of discussion, workshops, events, and celebration — including the University of Gondar’s 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee and the inauguration of the University of Gondar Comprehensive Outpatient Center.

Workshops and discussion at the I-TECH Ethiopia offices

I-TECH has had a presence in Ethiopia since 2003, and in that time, has become a guiding force in antiretroviral therapy service delivery and human resources for health, building the capacity of the Regional Health Bureaus (RHBs), universities, and health facilities; introducing innovative initiatives such as task sharing; activating effective monitoring and evaluation interventions; advocating for and implementing TB prevention programs, including MDR-TB; and building the capacity of health facilities and regional labs. The team acts in close partnership with the RHB offices of the Ministry of Health in Afar, Amhara, and Tigray and will be transitioning most of its programs to the RHBs in September 2014.

In advance of this transition, Dr. King Holmes, Chair of the DGH, and Dr. Ann Downer, I-TECH Executive Director, met with staff in Addis Ababa during a July 4 coffee ceremony. The meeting was an opportunity to say farewell to some incredibly valuable members of the I-TECH Ethiopia team who are leaving as projects are transitioned to the RHBs and discuss highlights of more than a decade of outstanding work in Ethiopia.

Bryan Verity, I-TECH HQ Director of Human Resources, was earlier on hand to facilitate a four-day career transition series with materials adopted from the UW career center. The series was co-facilitated by Tigist Dagne, Human Resources Manager at I-TECH Ethiopia.

“We had a great level of involvement by the staff, especially during the ‘assessing personal strengths’ workshop,” said Verity. During this exercise, a staff member shared experiences, while “listeners” tracked skills/strengths that the speaker employed during the experience.

The series also covered writing curriculum vitae (CV), conducting a job search, and strengthening interview skills. In addition, Verity presented a 60-minute training on personal financial management.

“It’s been a tremendous honor to work with such a dedicated and talented group of people,” said Dr. Downer. “I am so pleased that King and I had the opportunity to express our gratitude in person for the fine work this team has done to combat HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Everywhere we went in Ethiopia we heard about the positive reputation and valued contributions of our I-TECH Ethiopia team.”

Much to celebrate at the University of Gondar

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn

Speaking alongside Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia Haslach, Dr. Holmes delivered a keynote address at the inauguration of the Gondar Comprehensive Outpatient Center on July 6. The launch was bookended by the university’s graduation ceremony and its 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee conference.

The center was a collaborative effort of I-TECH, UW, the University of Gondar, and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) representatives in Ethiopia: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA).

The construction of this center was critical to address the significant burden and impact of disease in Ethiopia to comply with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health’s (MOH) mandate to increase the number of health care workers and to support the goal of PEPFAR to improve delivery of acute and preventive services related to HIV, TB, and malaria.

To meet these goals, the building can provide care to approximately 350,000 patients per year and serve as a training center for clinical outpatient care in TB, infectious disease, adult medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and emergency care. It houses a state-of-the-art TB facility.

Dr. Holmes visits his namesake CPD center.

Dr. Holmes visits his namesake CPD center.

I-TECH and the UW, through funding from PEPFAR, were instrumental in the conception and execution of the center, serving as consultants for both facility design and curriculum development. In this work, I-TECH helped to ensure that the facility allows for the integration of clinical care, teaching, and training. Dr. Scott Barnhart, an I-TECH principal investigator and a UW professor of medicine and global health, brought in Christine Kiefer, a Harborview Medical Center architect, to consult on the project.

In the days following the inauguration, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Downer led conference sessions on Innovations in Global Health and Effective Teaching, respectively.

Dr. Holmes also had the opportunity to visit a namesake training hall at the University of Gondar: the King Holmes Continuous Professional Development Center. “What a wonderful and humbling experience,” Dr. Holmes said of the visit. “And what a great way to end the trip.”

I-TECH Presents at AIDS 2014 in Melbourne

Post categories: Health Systems Strengthening HIV and STI Prevention HIV Care and Treatment Namibia
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AIDS2014image

On July 20-25, the biennial International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2014, will be held in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Gabrielle O’Malley, I-TECH’s Director of Implementation Science, is heading down under to present two posters:

  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Patient Education and Empowerment to Improve Patient-Provider Interactions at ART Clinics in Namibia, lead authored by Dr. Ellen MacLachlan, I-TECH Senior Research and Publications Advisor
  • “If I Take My Medicine, I Will Be Strong”: Evaluation of an Innovative Pediatric HIV Disclosure Intervention in Namibia, lead authored by Dr. O’Malley

For full versions of these posters, contact Anne Fox, Communications Officer, at foxanne@uw.edu.

As always, the conference is a tremendous opportunity for those working in the field of HIV, policy makers, civil society, and persons living with HIV to share perspectives and knowledge — with a focus on the diversity of response in the Asia Pacific region.

The theme of AIDS 2014 is “Stepping Up the Pace,” and speakers including former President Bill Clinton; new U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Deborah Birx; and Dr. Tony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, will examine scientific developments, human rights, and lessons learned in the effort to map our next steps in the fight against the pandemic.

Read more about the conference — as well as the 2012 Melbourne Declaration in support of human rights in the march toward an AIDS-free generation — at www.aids2014.org.

Ukrainian Medical University Delegation Visits I-TECH HQ

Post categories: Health Systems Strengthening HIV and STI Prevention HIV Care and Treatment Human Resources for Health Nursing/HCW Cadres Quality Improvement Ukraine
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Ukraine_MOU_image

From L to R: Dr. King Holmes, Dr. Olga Vystoska, and Dr. Ann Downer present the signed MOU.

On June 12 and 13, representatives from Ukraine’s Bogomolets National Medical University (NMU) visited I-TECH HQ offices at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington (UW) Department of Family Medicine.

NMU is the leading medical school in Ukraine, with more than 150 years of history. This visit formally launched the partnership between NMU and the UW’s I-TECH, Department of Global Health, School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Family Medicine Department. Steps toward partnership began this spring, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by all parties.

The visit started off with a two-hour planning meeting, during which Dr. King Holmes, chair of the UW Department of Global Health (DGH), gave an introduction to the department. This was followed by presentations by Olga Vystoska, Director of the Ukrainian Family Medicine Training Center at NMU, and other UW department representatives, who explored possible areas of collaboration.  The meeting wrapped up with the exchange of signed originals of the MOU.

The Ukrainian delegation particularly appreciated the opportunity to meet I-TECH’s Executive Director, Dr. Ann Downer, and staff; learn about I-TECH’s activities; and tour the UW’s Family Medicine Clinic and Harborview Madison Clinic, which provides medical care and social services for persons living with HIV/AIDS. The group was especially impressed by a tour of the UW Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS) lab at Harborview, and Dr. Vystoska expressed interest in starting a similar lab at NMU.

The delegation also had a working meeting with Dr. Chris Behrens to discuss next steps in developing an HIV in-service training curriculum for family practitioners that I-TECH plans to pilot in Kyiv in October with Dr. Behrens’s co-facilitation.

The new Project Director of I-TECH Ukraine, Anna Shapoval, was a driving force behind this collaboration and visit.

“The I-TECH Ukraine team is excited to promote the HIV response and health care reform in Ukraine,” said Ms. Shapoval, who added that she was very pleased with how the meetings went. “We look forward to growing I-TECH’s presence in country, focusing on the most urgent issues of streamlining HIV into primary health care, advancing quality assurance and quality improvement models — as continuation of its unique experience with CLASS.”

Other potential areas of collaboration include joint research activities, publications, and library exchanges; the exchange of faculty members and students for study, teaching, and research; and joint hosting of distance education broadcasts and online courses and seminars.

Julie Stein, Technical Officer for Training Development on the I-TECH Ukraine team, expressed enthusiasm as well. “This visit was incredibly fruitful,” said Ms. Stein. “The meetings and tours generated a lot of excitement from everyone about possible future collaboration.”

I-TECH Presents at CUGH 2014

Post categories: eLearning/Distance Learning Haiti Health Information Systems Health Systems Strengthening HIV Care and Treatment Kenya Laboratory Systems Leadership & Management South Africa
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Optimized-CUGH 2014 (1)

I-TECH staff will head to Washington, D.C., this week to the Fifth Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Conference, which will take place at the Washington Hilton from May 10-12. More than 1,300 participants from 50 countries are expected to attend the conference, co-hosted by the George Washington University and Stanford University.

This year’s theme is “Universities 2.0: Advancing Global Health in the Post-MDG Era,” and I-TECH teams will present on forward-looking topics ranging from the implementation of electronic medical records to partnership with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Confirmed speakers include President of the World Bank Jim Kim; former Head of UNAIDS and current Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Peter Piot; and Head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeff Sachs. Dr. King Holmes, I-TECH Principal Investigator and 2013 Gairdner Global Health Awardee, will also speak at CUGH’s Gairdner Lecture on May 12.

For those planning to attend the conference, don’t forget to check out the University of Washington Department of Global Health table — and to stop by the I-TECH presentations, listed below.

Kenya

  • Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Implementation at Scale in the Public Health Sector: Lessons Learned in Kenya

Haiti

  • Using an electronic medical record system to identify factors associated with attrition from the HIV antiretroviral therapy program at two hospitals in Haiti
  • Before and After the Earthquake: A Case Study of Attrition from the HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Program in Haiti

South Africa

  • Successes and challenges in liaising with PEPFAR partners and stakeholders in the TB/HIV Management Program
  • Evaluation of a comprehensive HIV prevention program in North West Province, South Africa: results from the pilot
  • Integrating research into program design: Conducting a situational analysis to inform comprehensive HIV prevention and care in North West Province, South Africa
  • Mystery patients: Training actors to serve as unannounced standardized patients to evaluate training outcomes for sexually transmitted infections in South Africa

Lab Leadership and Management

  • Certificate Program in Clinical and Public Health Laboratory Leadership and Management

Contact Anne Fox in Communications to see any of these completed posters.

About CUGH:

Founded by leading North American university global health programs, CUGH aims to:

  • Define the field and discipline of global health;
  • Standardize required curricula and competencies for global health;
  • Define criteria and conditions for student and faculty field placements in host institutions;
  • Provide coordination of projects and initiatives among and between resource-rich universities and less-developed nations and their institutions.

CUGH is dedicated to creating balance in resources and in the exchange of students and faculty between institutions in rich and poor countries, recognizing the importance of equal partnership between the academic institutions in developing nations and their resource-rich counterparts in the planning, implementation, management and impact evaluation of joint projects.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided the leadership and funding to plan this consortium. The Rockefeller Foundation provided a grant to help develop the organizational structure of CUGH in its first year of existence.

Five-Year Cooperative Agreement with CDC to Train and Mentor Zimbabwe Medical Staff

Post categories: eLearning/Distance Learning Health Systems Strengthening HIV and STI Prevention HIV Care and Treatment Zimbabwe
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A new award to I-TECH seeks to fight the spread of HIV in Zimbabwe by rapidly scaling up training and mentoring of the country’s medical staff.

I-TECH South Africa Co-Hosts Third National Regional Training Centre Conference

Post categories: Health Systems Strengthening HIV Care and Treatment Human Resources for Health South Africa
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Every biennium, the South African National Department of Health hosts a National Regional Training Center (RTC) Conference that brings together RTC managers, their line management, as well as key policy makers from the National and Provincial Departments of Health.This year I-TECH South Africa was honored to serve as a co-host.

This was the third national conference, and this year the theme was A Decade of Strengthening the Health Care System: Developing Human Resources for Health through the Regional Training Centers.

The popular conference registered 137 delegates out of the expected 120. Public health experts delivered compelling talks, whose topics ranged from  leadership and management to innovative ways of delivering training.

I-TECH South Africa staff were key to organizing and hosting the conference.

I-TECH South Africa presented a talk on The Findings of the Situational Analysis in Nine Regional Training Centres of South Africa, as well as a report on Regional Training Center Models, which was authored by Dr Nathan Linsk, a professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who drew on his 25 years experience with the US AIDS Education and Training Centers network.  Both of these reports contributed significantly to the subsequent three days of discussion about the future of Regional Training Centers in South Africa.

During the conference, delegates were divided into five commission that looked at:

  1. Future role (Coordination of all in-service training; Institutional Base, Location, Funding model)
  2. Resources for RTCs (Human, IT, Internet connectivity, Equipment, Infrastructure etc.)
  3. Training and Education Approach (Mentoring, distance learning and Resource Library)
  4. Coordination, Accreditation and linkages with academic institutions (levels of accreditation, certification etc.)
  5. Planning, M & E, Reporting (Training needs analysis, integrated planning, M & E systems)

RTC managers took the worksheets from the 5 Commissions and developed an action plan, which was presented by the National Department of Health in a plenary session. As part of the next steps, I-TECH South Africa and NDOH will write a Conference report that will contain the action plan and a monitoring and evaluation plan as attachments. The NDOH will present the action plan to the National Health Council, made up of the National and Provincial Ministers of Health, for high level decisions and support toward the implementation of the proposed model.