INTRODUCTION: Our study describes changes in HIV care service delivery and continuity of HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV (PLHIV) during the 8 weeks before and after diagnosis of the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Haiti on March 19, 2020. METHODS: Using data from 96 out of 167 health facilities offering ART services, we compared four ART program indicators: (1) count of HIV visits; (2) proportion of ART dispenses in community-based settings (DAC); (3) proportion of multi-month dispensing of ART medications > 6 months (> 6 m MMD); and (4) proportion of timely ART refills. We used uncontrolled interrupted time series (ITS) models to estimate slope and level changes in each indicator with the arrival of COVID-19. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: From week 1 to week 16, the average number of HIV visits fell from 121.5 to 92.5 visits, the proportion of DAC rose from 22.7% to 36.7%, the proportion of > 6 m MMD rose from 29.4% to 48.4%, and the proportion of timely ART refills fell from 51.9% to 43.8%. The ITS models estimated abrupt increases of 36% in > 6 m MMD (p < 0.001) and 37% in DAC (p < 0.001) at the time of COVID-19 arrival, and no change after arrival of COVID-19. The was an abrupt decline of 18% in timely ART refills with the arrival of COVID-19 and a decline of 1% per week thereafter, both non-statistically significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The sudden changes in HIV service utilization represent dramatic adaptations needed to mitigate primary and secondary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on PLHIV. This study underscores the urgency of optimizing ART delivery models in Haiti and beyond, in order to maintain progress toward HIV epidemic control.

Electronic health information systems, including electronic medical records (EMRs), have the potential to improve access to information and quality of care, among other things. Success factors and challenges for novel EMR implementations in low-resource settings have increasingly been studied, although less is known about maturing systems and sustainability. One systematic review identified seven categories of implementation success factors: ethical, financial, functionality, organizational, political, technical and training. This case study applies this framework to iSante, Haiti's national EMR in use in more than 100 sites and housing records for more than 750 000 patients. The author group, consisting of representatives of different agencies within the Haitian Ministry of Health (MSPP), funding partner the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Haiti, and implementing partner the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), identify successes and lessons learned according to the seven identified categories, and propose an additional cross-cutting category, sustainability. Factors important for long-term implementation success of complex information systems are balancing investments in hardware and software infrastructure upkeep, user capacity and data quality control; designing and building a system within the context of the greater eHealth ecosystem with a plan for interoperability and data exchange; establishing system governance and strong leadership to support local system ownership and planning for system financing to ensure sustainability. Lessons learned from 10 years of implementation of the iSante EMR system are relevant to sustainability of a full range of increasingly interrelated information systems (e.g. for laboratory, supply chain, pharmacy and human resources) in the health sector in low-resource settings.

Objectives: The aim of this case study was to compare two alternative strategies for prioritizing data elements for data quality assessment (DQA) in a routine health management information system. The study used data from iSante, a multi-site electronic medical record implemented by the Haitian Ministry of Health. We described and compared two prioritization strategies: (1) a Delphi process drawing iterative feedback from clinicians and stakeholders responsible for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of health programs to identify consensus priorities for data on HIV patients; and (2) a process using burden of disease estimates from Haiti to establish priorities for data on primary care patients. Methods: The Delphi process included 26 individuals across 6 institutions, including clinicians and M&E specialists. Through three rounds of questionnaires, the stakeholders provided input for prioritization of 13 indicators for completeness, accuracy and timeliness of HIV data. The burden of disease prioritization process revealed that cardiovascular disease contributed to the greatest number of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). This resulted in the selection of 16 data quality indicators for primary care data. Results: Both methods informed the definition of a set of automated data quality queries to assess internal validity, completeness, and timeliness using logic and clinical plausibility. The Delphi process benefited from stakeholder input, but was lengthy in process. The burden of disease prioritization process was objective and easier to implement, but lacked stakeholder buy-in. Conclusions: A hybrid approach guided by both disease burden and stakeholder input may be most beneficial for prioritizing data elements for DQA.

OBJECTIVES: Strong data quality (DQ) is a precursor to strong data use. In resource limited settings, routine DQ assessment (DQA) within electronic medical record (EMR) systems can be resource-intensive using manual methods such as audit and chart review; automated queries offer an efficient alternative. This DQA focused on Haiti's national EMR - iSante - and included longitudinal data for over 100,000 persons living with HIV (PLHIV) enrolled in HIV care and treatment services at 95 health care facilities (HCF). METHODS: This mixed-methods evaluation used a qualitative Delphi process to identify DQ priorities among local stakeholders, followed by a quantitative DQA on these priority areas. The quantitative DQA examined 13 indicators of completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of retrospective data collected from 2005 to 2013. We described levels of DQ for each indicator over time, and examined the consistency of within-HCF performance and associations between DQ and HCF and EMR system characteristics. RESULTS: Over all iSante data, age was incomplete in <1% of cases, while height, pregnancy status, TB status, and ART eligibility were more incomplete (approximately 20-40%). Suspicious data flags were present for <3% of cases of male sex, ART dispenses, CD4 values, and visit dates, but for 26% of cases of age. Discontinuation forms were available for about half of all patients without visits for 180 or more days, and >60% of encounter forms were entered late. For most indicators, DQ tended to improve over time. DQ was highly variable across HCF, and within HCFs DQ was variable across indicators. In adjusted analyses, HCF and system factors with generally favorable and statistically significant associations with DQ were University hospital category, private sector governance, presence of local iSante server, greater HCF experience with the EMR, greater maturity of the EMR itself, and having more system users but fewer new users. In qualitative feedback, local stakeholders emphasized lack of stable power supply as a key challenge to data quality and use of the iSante EMR. CONCLUSIONS: Variable performance on key DQ indicators across HCF suggests that excellent DQ is achievable in Haiti, but further effort is needed to systematize and routinize DQ approaches within HCFs. A dynamic, interactive "DQ dashboard" within iSante could bring transparency and motivate improvement. While the results of the study are specific to Haiti's iSante data system, the study's methods and thematic lessons learned holdgeneralized relevance for other large-scale EMR systems in resource-limited countries.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the level of functionality of President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-supported HIV clinical services following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010. DESIGN: Available program-monitoring data from sites providing voluntary counseling and testing for HIV (VCT), antenatal care (ANC) and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, and antiretroviral treatment (ART) were described, comparing pre-earthquake and post-earthquake periods during October 2008 to May 2010. METHODS: Pre-earthquake HIV service baselines for VCT, PMTCT, and ART enrollment were defined as monthly mean total number of patients served over 15 months pre-earthquake. ART baseline was defined as total current patients by December 2009. Sites were categorized as high-earthquake or low-earthquake intensity based on location and instrumental shake intensity data. RESULTS: Pre-earthquake mean monthly baselines were 41,087 (VCT), 11,909 (HIV testing at ANC sites), 648 (ART enrollment), and 296 (PMTCT enrollment); baseline total current patients on ART was 24,863. Service provision in January and May 2010, reported as percentage of baseline, was 43 and 78.7% (VCT), 50.8 and 88.7% (HIV testing at ANC), 46 and 81% (PMTCT), and 41 and 82.7% (ART enrollment), respectively. Current patients on ART decreased to 97% of baseline in April, rising to 103.9% by May; the initial decline was restricted to high-earthquake intensity areas. CONCLUSION: Following the Haiti earthquake, there was a transient, marked decline in VCT and new ART patient enrollment, whereas follow-up of established ART patients remained impressively high. HIV treatment continuity should be reinforced in disaster preparedness and response strategies in HIV epidemic settings.