Type | Journal Article - BMC Infectious Diseases |
Title | Optimised electronic patient records to improve clinical monitoring of HIV-positive patients in rural South Africa (MONART trial): study protocol for a cluster-randomised trial |
Volume | 21 |
Issue | 1 |
Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 2021 |
URL | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06952-5 |
Abstract | There is poor viral load monitoring (VLM) and inadequate management of virological failure in HIV-positive individuals on antiretroviral therapy in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This could be contributing to increasing HIV drug resistance in the setting. This study aims to investigate the clinical and process impediments in VLM within the health system and to evaluate a quality improvement package (QIP) to address the identified gaps. The QIP comprises (i) a designated viral load champion responsible for administrative management and triaging of viral load results (ii) technological enhancement of the routine clinic-based Three Interlinked Electronic Register (TIER.Net) to facilitate daily automatic import of viral load results from the National Health Service Laboratory to TIER.Net (iii) development of a dashboard system to support VLM. |