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Global Programs Namibia: Research
CURRENT PROJECTS
Point-Of-Care Urine Tenofovir Testing In Namibia To Help Reach 95% Viral Suppression (PANTHER-95)
Namibia has demonstrated commendable progress towards achieving the UNAIDS goals, with current efforts focused on attaining the 97/97/97 targets by 2028, building upon the 95/95/95 milestones. Nonetheless, addressing the remaining gaps necessitates innovative strategies. Virologic failure among patients on first line Tenofovir-Lamivudine-Dolutegravir (TLD) mainly arises from non-adherence, given DTG's high resistance barrier. Detecting non-adherence to TLD via objective adherence measures holds promise for achieving and sustaining Viral Suppression. The Panther -95 study aimed to integrate the use of a point of care urine tenofovir testing with standard of care enhanced adherence counseling to assess the impact of this intervention in improving adherence from 2021 to 2023. The preliminary results of this study showed great potential in the use of the objective measure of adherence and providers and study beneficiaries welcomed its use in care and treatment with an added cost effective element.
Study Accomplishments:
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Regional and district management support during implementation.
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Remarkable study buy in from facility staff and mentorship team.
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Strengthened collaboration among partners implementing HIV care and treatment programs.
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Improved staff motivation in enhanced adherence counselling.
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Targeted support visit by stakeholders and study team.
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Virtual support to facilities with use of Videography.
Lessons Learned
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The data verification exercise improved data quality at facilities.
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Expediated viral suppression among patients thereby improving quality of life
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Use of technology to improve fidelity of procedures by health care providers.
Publications
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Poster to be presented at the 30th CROIon preliminary results of the study .
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Final study results accepted for presentation at the 31st CROI
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Poster presentation accepted at 31st CROI on the Cost Effectiveness of the combined intervention. (Accepted)
Evaluation of Social Harms and Benefits Associated with HIV Recency Testing and Partner Notification Services in Namibia (SHIRE Study)
Namibia incorporated Partner Notification Services (PNS) into HIV testing guidelines in 2017 as an effective way to find individuals who are unaware, they are living with HIV. In 2019 they initiated the implementation of recency testing, providing individual results to participants. The Ministry of Health and Social Services then explored the correlation between PNS, return of recency test results, and the occurrence of social harms and/or benefits thorough the study implementation from March 2022 to date. The study was carried out in five districts with data being collected by a team of graduates from UNAM and NUST.
Study Accomplishments:
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The study gave way to improve structural barriers for participants to receive recency results and highlighted challenges such as non-disclosure of status among partners.
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In-depth interviews with Health care providers and social workers created an environment of shared collaboration.
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Referral processes were improved among nurses, community based workers and social workers
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The study became an intervention as through the interview process study participants received information of available resources.
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Sharing experiences from study participant to data collector became a healing process for patients.
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Psychosocial support given to data collectors during implementation and post data collection yielded positive outcomes.
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Building capacity of university graduates to have an interest in research as untapped territory for personal growth.
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Importance of team building activities with staff to increase intrinsic motivation.
Publications
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Upcoming abstract in collaboration with stakeholders.
Health Informatics & Technology
The Health Information Systems (HIS) team is committed to supporting vital initiatives, working with CDC PEPFAR, and national programs aimed at combating HIV, TB, and Malaria tracking and responding to the epidemic. The team is, positioned as the catalyst for transformative changes in the Namibian HIS landscape with the mission to support the e-health strategy, establishing a data pipeline for surveillance and public health response to enhance health outcomes nationwide.
Our Expertise
The team consists of multi-disciplinary expertise, including:
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HIS software and app development
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policy and governance,
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data warehouse, data triangulation, data visualization, statistical analysis
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electronic medical records (EMRs)
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interoperability and data exchange.
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Surveys and questionnaires
Global Programs Namibia works extensively to build and maintain close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOH), donors, and key stakeholders, ensuring that solutions are tailor-made to meet the evolving needs of the HIS landscape, thereby enhancing the quality of care for those in need and supporting the public health responses.
The impact of the office goes beyond Namibia's borders. Through the support and partnership with the Global Strategic Information (GSI) group, the Health Informatics Hub at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), we leverage our expertise in strategic planning, technical assistance, and capacity building, to not only provide near real-time monitoring of service delivery, improve the quality of care in Namibia but setting a global benchmark for excellence in health informatics.
Despite significant progress in battling against the HIV epidemic, in recent years, challenges persist in ensuring the sustainability and interoperability of Namibia's HIS landscape. Fragmented systems and a lack of standardized data exchange pose a threat to efforts aimed at monitoring the HIV epidemic and delivering high-quality care to those in need. Hence, we are committed to tackling these challenges head-on by providing technical assistance and capacity building to enhance data completeness, accuracy, and accessibility at every level of the healthcare system.
Current projects include:
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Master Patient Index (MPI):
Issuing unique health identifiers (Health IDs) to each client accessing healthcare services, aligning with MOH's mission to provide integrated, affordable, accessible, equitable, and quality health and social welfare services. Implementing a unique health identifier will help standardize patient identity management across all health programs, ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and security of sensitive patient information, improving patient healthcare outcomes, saving costs through the reduction of duplicate tests, and enhancing patient experience by eliminating repeat visits due to lost results, while enabling efficient data exchange between health information systems. Details on why Namibia chooses MPI.
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PTracker (PMTCT Tracker)
An innovative patient-level electronic medical record designed to demonstrate and validate the progress to Eliminate Maternal-To-Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV in Namibia., PTracker empowers healthcare providers to monitor and track the progress of mother-baby pairs across the Prevention of Mother-to Child Transmission (PMTCT) clinical cascade, from the moment they enter antenatal care until the outcomes of their infants are determined. PTracker is built upon the OpenMRS framework, strengthening the PMTCT Monitoring and Evaluation and Quality Improvement systems.
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Barcode Printer Implementation
Utilizing barcode printers to print unique identifiers as barcode labels, enhancing the accuracy of progress monitoring towards achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals. By integrating barcode printers and unique identifiers, facilitating the inclusion of HIV test results into EMRs for HIV-exposed infants and adults, identifying those in need of treatment, and monitoring viral load suppression effectively.
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National Data Warehouse:
In alignment with the Ministry of Health and Social Services' (MHSS) eHealth Strategy (2021-2025), initiatives such as the Health ID and the National Data Warehouse are pivotal in strengthening the availability of health information. Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to establish the infrastructure for the National Data Warehouse, developing program-specific dashboards to make the data available to the public.
Contact Us
Global Programs Namibia
Bahnhof Street No. 5
(Google Maps does not reflect new street name:
5 Prof. Mburumba Kerina Street)
Windhoek, Namibia
info.namibia@ucglobalprograms.org
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