Bussmann H., Wester C.W., Ndwapi N., Vanderwarker C., Gaolathe T., Tirelo G., Avalos A., Moffat H., Marlink R.G.
Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana; Infectious Disease Care Clinic, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Department of Medicine, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, Harvard School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Bussmann, H., Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana; Wester, C.W., Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana; Ndwapi, N., Infectious Disease Care Clinic, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Vanderwarker, C., Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana; Gaolathe, T., Infectious Disease Care Clinic, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Tirelo, G., Infectious Disease Care Clinic, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Avalos, A., Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana; Moffat, H., Department of Medicine, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana; Marlink, R.G., Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, Harvard School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Individual patient care and programme evaluation are pivotal for the success of antiretroviral treatment programmes in resource-limited countries. While computer-aided documentation and data storage are indispensable for any large programme, several important issues need to be addressed including which data are to be collected, who collects it and how it is entered into an electronic database. We describe a patient-monitoring approach, which uses patient encounter forms (in hybrid paper + electronic format) based on optical character recognition, piloted at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana's first public highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) outpatient clinic. Our novel data capture approach collects "key" data for tracking patient and programme outcomes. It saves physician time and does not detract from clinical care.
antiretrovirus agent; data acquisition; health monitoring; urban population; article; Botswana; computer aided design; drug activity; health program; highly active antiretroviral therapy; human; Human immunodeficiency virus infection; outpatient department; patient monitoring; physician; pilot study; urban area; Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; Automatic Data Processing; Botswana; CD4 Lymphocyte Count; Database Management Systems; Drug Monitoring; HIV Infections; HIV-1; Humans; Medical Records Systems, Computerized; Optical Storage Devices; Program Evaluation; RNA, Viral; Time Factors; Africa; Botswana; Southern Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa