I-TECH India PL is part of various national ART and testing guideline groups of NACO in India, including Journey of ART Programme in India; HTS Guidelines; ART Guidelines for HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents, May 2013; National Guidelines on Second-line and Alternative First-line ART For Adults and Adolescents, May 2013; Operational Guidelines for ART Centers, July 2012; HIV/TB Guidelines, 2015; and NationalART Technical Guidelines, October 2018 (http://www.naco.gov.in/care-support-treatment).
The team also assisted NACO in designing standard operating procedures for implementing newer program initiatives such as Treat All, Pre-ART mop-up, co-located ART and OST (Oral Substitution Therapy) Centres, ART through targeted intervention programs, and multi-month dispensation of ART.
I-TECH India PL has provided national, state, and facility level technical assistance for improving quality, analysis and presentation of ART program data; developed innovative tools for tracking program progress based on data analysis of selected indicators over a period of time and submitted for national scale-up; and provided technical mentoring to improve quality of data collection and reporting by the ART Centers at 48 sites of India in the last three years.
I-TECH India PL has worked with stakeholders to develop national training curricula for health care staff on delivering HIV care and treatment services. In addition, it has:
Planned and implemented training programs for various cadres of clinical and program staff;
Participated in medical officer training programs at the national level;
Designed and conducted five regional continuing medical education (CME) courses in North, South, West and Northeastern regions on “Invigorating HIV Care” for ART center medical officers;
Designed and conducted four workshops in two weeks reaching 164 ART counselors for improving care support and treatment services provided to key population clients accessing ART centre services in Maharashtra;
Conducted National Distance Learning Seminars (webinars)—an average of 25 sessions per year on clinical- and program-related topics for the past five years reaching over 50% of ART Centers in India, with average participation of 1000 per session. These sessions are recorded and are available on YouTube channel “I-TECH India.”
Conducted Regional Distance Learning Seminars (webinars)—an average of 60 sessions per year through 15 HIV/AIDS Centres of Excellence in more than six languages during the last five years reaching over 50 % of ART Centers in India, with average participation of 50 per session; and
Coordinated certificate courses from UW on Leadership and Management in Health, Principles of STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and HIV Research, Introduction to Epidemiology for Global Health, Clinical Management of HIV, and Fundamentals of Implementation Science for over 500 individuals during the past five years.
I-TECH India PL has successfully designed and implemented four differentiated ART service delivery models, including models for key population clients, in collaboration with other stakeholders in states of Maharashtra, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram to develop a proof of concept for the national level scale up;
Improved delivery of health services through onsite technical mentoring and supervison of health care staff in 9% of the ART centers of the country in the last three years;
Technically assisted successful implementation of newer initiatives such as treatment of TB through the ART centers, the “Treat All” initiative, and routine viral load monitoring at 48 ART centers; and
Conducted/participated in health service delivery assessments of facilities such as the national HIV/AIDS Centers of Excellence, ART Centers, Link ART Centers, and other care and support centers for the NACO.
Training participants and facilitators. Photo source: I-TECH Ukraine.
The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) Ukraine, in partnership with the Ukrainian Family Medicine Training Center of Bogomolets National Medical University, conducted a three-day training course for clinical educators on principles and innovative methods for effective teaching. The course was held outside Kyiv from 18-20 September 2018.
Facilitating the training were Ann Downer, EdD, I-TECH Executive Director and Professor in the University of Washington Department of Global Health, and Michael Reyes, MD, MPH, I-TECH co-founder and Professor in the University of California, San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine.
The course focused primarily on new teaching methods and stronger instructional design for clinical courses taught by faculty, especially those with content on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria. The objectives included helping clinical educators to:
strengthen learning objectives and measurement of student learning;
vary their use of teaching methods; and
revise lectures to make them more interactive.
Ann Downer, I-TECH Executive Director, conducts a session, “Competencies, Learning Objectives, and Domains of Learning,” on the first day of the training. Photo source: I-TECH Ukraine.
The course modeled these objectives by using small group work and other teaching methods to increase engagement.
“Over the course of three days, I was able to learn techniques and best practices to actively engage my course participants into the learning process,” says Galyna Vynogradova, Associate Professor of the Ukrainian Family Medicine Training Center and participant of the training.
This training course is a part of a larger I-TECH effort to build the clinical and managerial capacity of HIV/AIDS service providers throughout Ukraine.
I-TECH supported the National Department of Health (NDoH) in the process of strengthening the policy management and implementation systems with a focus on reaching the 95-95-95 targets and provided ongoing technical assistance as the NDoH beta tested the policy information management system (PIMS) developed in COP 2017.
I-TECH supported the revision and finalization of a Policy Manual and coordinated with the NDoH Policy Project Steering Committee to promote engagement from NDoH staff.
I-TECH supported Human Resource and Primary Healthcare Directorate-led training and capacity development initiatives through training and mentoring activities based on gaps identified from assessment of health care worker competencies, with emphasis placed on the Professional Nurse.
In collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and The Knowledge Translation Unit, I-TECH worked with the National Department of Health (NDoH) in South Africa to strengthen the integration of mental health services into routine chronic care within the primary health care system.
The Mental Health Integration (MhINT) program improves access to care for common mental disorders and benefits adherence and engagement in care, aligning with the UNAIDS 95-95-95 strategy. I-TECH provided technical assistant to the NDoH and district support partners (DSPs) as the MhINT Program was scaled-up in priority districts identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program (CDC GAP), South Africa, through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). I-TECH also supported the NDoH as it conducted an in-depth policy situation analysis to inform the development of a national policy incorporating the MhINT program.
Through the South African Men’s HIV Self-Testing, I-TECH demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of an intervention model utilizing community health workers and outreach team leaders to increase uptake of HIV testing and treatment initiation among undiagnosed HIV-positive men.
