top of page

Technical Assistance

Image by Markus Spiske

Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Assistance (META)

META is a collaborative partnership between the Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) and UCSF. The initial phase of this collaboration, the Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Assistance (META) project, was funded from 2009 to 2015, with UCSF as the prime recipient. Global Programs Uganda has provided technical support staff to MakSPH throughout these initiatives.

​

In 2015, a five-year follow-on project called Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support (METS) was awarded to MakSPH, with UCSF serving as a sub-recipient from 2015 to 2021. In 2021, an additional five-year follow-on project, METS II, was awarded to MakSPH, with UCSF continuing as a sub-recipient. The U.S. government funded all these projects through Cooperative Agreements issued by the CDC under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

Strategic Information for Quality HIV Implementation and Learning consortium (SIQHIL) Tanzania

Global Programs Uganda provides technical assistance to Tanzania's National AIDS Control Programme and Ministry of Health on HIV and AIDS data collection and reporting. Since FY22, this has included developing electronic health information systems and maintaining analytics applications and dashboards.

​

The Global Programs Uganda Informatics team has been essential in building and supporting the Tanzania HIS team with technical support, capacity building, and guidance.

 

Key projects include:

  • DAMES mobile app and dashboard for DREAMS implementing partners.

  • CTC-Analytics and Monthly Portal tools for analyzing HIV care and treatment data;

  • M&E ODK tool and dashboard;

  • Laboratory visual application for critical performance indicators; and

  • DHIS2 platforms for recency surveillance reporting and Lab PTCQI.

Caribbean Regional Program Activities

With funding from the CDC Caribbean Regional Office, Global Programs Uganda provides technical assistance to Ministries of Health in the Caribbean to enhance data collection, analysis, and use for HIV programming.

 

Since the strategic shift of the PEPFAR Program in 2016 in the Caribbean Region, Global Programs staff have allocated support and resources to countries based on factors such as the HIV burden in the population. This approach has shifted the focus to Jamaica within the Caribbean region. There is also a greater emphasis on understanding the issues facing key populations to reduce new infections and address barriers and facilitators for linkage to care, retention in care, and viral suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV).

​

Global Programs collaborates with regional partners to support the implementation of special studies and database linkage projects through targeted technical assistance. This collaboration helps to understand the HIV epidemic better and ultimately achieve epidemic control.

 

In Jamaica, the Global Programs team works closely with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to accomplish project activities. It provides routine virtual technical assistance to members of the technical team. The Jamaica Informatics project portfolio includes database development and linkage activities to create a unified health information system in Jamaica, facilitating 95-95-95 reporting.

​

SIQHIL Jamaica 

Global Programs Uganda Informatics staff provides ongoing virtual and in-country technical assistance to informatics projects in Jamaica under the CDC SIQHIL cooperative agreement, funded by the CDC Caribbean Regional Office. Their work included technical input on maintaining and improving the TSIS2 and SUPA databases. With input from the Ministry of Health's SI team, Global Programs staff supported enhancements for site- and national-level report generation processes, including data visualization features.

​

The Jamaica dashboard offers visual information on various metrics such as the stage of disease at HIV diagnosis, test-and-treat, ART regimen initiation and current use, retention, viral load testing uptake, and suppression. It also provides a client browser with a link to a client dashboard. In FY 2023, Global Programs Uganda Informatics staff regularly engaged with a Dashboard Technical Working Group (TWG) comprised of national-level stakeholders (users and technical teams) to better understand and respond to the needs of Jamaica MOHW regarding data visualization access and usability at national and sub-national levels.

​

Additionally, the Informatics staff collaborated closely with the UCSF Jamaica Data Manager in-country to identify clients labeled as "lost-to-follow-up" and "not currently on treatment" in the system who were still receiving treatment at other locations or due to varied recording practices of prescription drugs. This finding improved data entry and quality practices at both site and subnational levels.

 

SIQHIL Trinidad 

The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Trinidad and Tobago is enhancing its surveillance of Health Information Systems (HIS) and planning for a comprehensive HIS platform. Global Programs Uganda Informatics staff provided HIS surveillance options through demos and Q&A sessions.

​

Following a successful FY2022 visit, UCSF received approval to assist in developing a DHIS2 platform and a mini data warehouse (mini SUPA) for centralized HIV case and treatment data. This platform includes data visualization for reports, graphs, tables, and maps.

​

By June 30, 2023, the DHIS2 platform was developed, DHIS2 Champions were trained, and a soft launch was planned for September 2023. The mini SUPA was also tested in September 2023. This progress was due to the collaboration with Trinidad and Tobago's MOH IT, HIV/AIDS Coordinating Unit (HACU), and CDC Caribbean. Further efforts will continue into FY2024.

HISTAC Project

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

 

Main goals:

  1. Providing technical assistance to USG-supported countries in health information systems (HIS).

  2. Developing digital global goods to improve healthcare delivery and public health outcomes.

 

Support areas:

The HISTAC project team provides support in several critical areas, including:

  • OpenMRS 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; and

  • Enterprise architectures to create blueprints for national eHealth infrastructures.

 

Accomplishments:

The HISTAC project has achieved several milestones, including:

  • 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.

bottom of page