Nancy Puttkammer, PhD, MPH, presented a poster at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston on 4-7 March 2018. She was joined by Rose Boulay, a representative from the Haiti Ministry of Health (MSPP) National HIV Program (PNLS). Madame Boulay works on data quality assessment, training for clinical sites, and decision making using data from the iSanté electronic medical record (EMR) system.
The poster, titled “Multi-Month Scripting (MMS) and Retention on HIV Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Haiti,” reflected the collaboration between I-TECH and MSPP to analyze national policies using iSanté data from 85 ART clinics. They examined the MSPP-led MMS initiative to prescribe longer intervals of ART for stable patients. The goal of the MMS approach is to improve patient retention on ART by reducing the burden to patients of coming into the clinic monthly to pick up their ART prescription.
“Our analysis showed impressive uptake of MMS across all health facilities, suggesting that longer intervals are welcomed by providers and patients,” explained Dr. Puttkammer. “Patients prescribed ART for two months or more were 18% more likely to be retained, after adjusting for various patient and facility factors, compared to patients on monthly ART regimens. This is a promising result in terms of the goals of the MMS approach.”
Haiti’s national EMR system allows for the MSPP to conduct data analysis to evaluate the success of health interventions across the entire network of clinics and hospitals in a timely manner. “We are very pleased that we have been able use the iSanté data system to measure the progress of our national HIV and AIDS response, and to share our results with an international audience at CROI. It has been a great experience,” stated Madame Boulay.