Global Programs Kenya provides technical and operational assistance in generating and using strategic information for HIV prevention and control programming by building sustainable platforms and capacities.

 

The critical technical competencies we support include Epidemiological Surveillance, Program Monitoring and Evaluation, Health Informatics and Technology, and Capacity Building.

 

Currently, we are engaged in the following initiatives:

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The CDC-funded Strategic Use of Surveillance and Epidemiology to Support HIV Epidemic Control in Kenya under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

 

Technical Assistance and Project Implementation:

• HISTAC Project:

  • HQ Support of Improved Interoperable Health Information Systems (HIS) towards HIV/AIDS and TB Control through Improved HIS Policy, Governance, Workforce Capacity, and Systems under PEPFAR CDC.

  • A collaboration between UCSF, Makerere University in Uganda, and the University of Nairobi in Kenya, implementing the CDC-sponsored Technical Assistance Platform (TAP) project.

  • Provides technical assistance to USG-supported countries in health information systems and develops digital global goods to improve healthcare delivery and public health outcomes.

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• Support areas:

  • OpenMRS is an open-source medical record platform

  • Client Registries and Master Patient Indices supporting client linkage across health services

  • National Health Data Dictionaries that enable uniform medical vocabulary and data exchanges;

  • Data Exchange that facilitates electronic data exchange between systems

  • Monitoring and evaluation that defines indicators and logic frameworks

  • Enterprise architectures to create blueprints for national eHealth infrastructures

 

• Accomplishments:

  • Enhancements to OpenMRS:

  • The introduction of a react-based forms engine will make data collection easier;

  • Development of MambaETL for automated data conversion and reporting;

  • Creation of packages for managing data on HIV, TB, PMTCT, and COVID-19; and

  • Integration of lab and pharmacy orders.

  • Collaboration with OpenMRS developers and implementers, fostering community engagement.

  • Technical assistance was provided to OpenMRS implementers in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.

  • Integrated Biological and Behavioral Assessment Reports (IBBS)

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Surveillance:

• Case-Based Surveillance: CBS, as part of HIV surveillance systems, involves the identification and reporting of newly diagnosed HIV-infected persons and routine longitudinal follow-up of HIV cases beyond diagnosis.

• HIV Recency Surveillance: involves the identification and reporting of newly diagnosed HIV-infected persons whose infection is determined to be a recent HIV infection rather than a long-standing one.

• Mortality and Hospital-Based Surveillance of HIV-associated Mortality centered on HIV-associated mortality in critical hospitals.

• General surveillance activities examples(s)

 

Capacity Building:

• Support Kenya National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP) and other HIV program partners in equipping health service providers with the capacity to improve Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for HIV programs at national, county, and sub-county levels.

• At the health facility level, we have led the development and delivery of short courses around understanding documentation requirements, identifying data gaps, collecting and analyzing technically sound data (and using that data to improve program planning and decision-making).

• Two courses (HIV M&E Tools and Cohort Analysis) have been offered as five-day face-to-face short course workshops. To date, the HIV M&E Tools course has reached more than 1,500 health service providers in 14 counties in Kenya through in-person training sessions.

• We are also leading the effort to develop e-learning solutions for capacity-building initiatives to expand the reach and coverage of NASCOP's courses:

  • HIV Strategic Information Capacity Building: We partner with public health experts and foster capacity development through tailored interventions, protocols, and tools for implementation, data analysis, and dissemination of findings.

  • eLearning Program

    • Developed on the open-source Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) and hosted at the University of Nairobi eLearning portal, the platform features a creative course instructional design, a robust help desk, and a learner support mechanism.

    • The National HIV M&E tools training course, the first course deployed on the LMS, is a mix of text and video-based content, interactive case scenarios, practice sessions, live chat room tutorials, and in-course discussion forums. The learner support mechanisms include an integrated and automated Short Messaging Service (SMS) and email reminders, announcements, milestone achievements, and a cloud-hosted open-source ticketing system that individual learners can use to submit questions and receive a response from the support team. More than 5,300 healthcare workers have enrolled in the online HIV M&E tools training course in 2018. The course takes 45 days of learning, and the completion rate is 50 percent. The transition to eLearning has expanded the uptake and coverage of the NASCOP courses, and we are currently converting the HEI and ART cohort analysis courses into eLearning modules.

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UCSF Health Informatics Hub:

• We provide technical, programmatic, and managerial expertise to design, develop, implement, and utilize health information systems at national and sub-national levels.​