Digital PCR-positive Tool Report: An Electronic Health Information Systems Intervention to Routinely Monitor Missed Opportunities for Preventing Vertical HIV Transmission
Digital PCR-positive Tool Report: An Electronic Health Information Systems Intervention to Routinely Monitor Missed Opportunities for Preventing Vertical HIV Transmission
The PCR-positive tool in the form of paper-based forms was introduced in 2015, to identify and close gaps in preventing pediatric HIV infection and facilitate linkages to care. The current paper-based tool faces several challenges in implementation, including limited staff capacity, manual data entry, and long turnaround times for analysis. These limitations hinder the tool’s potential to fasttrack progress towards eliminating pediatric HIV infection. A digitized version of the tool could address these limitations, enabling realtime data capture and collation, systematic data collection and analysis, timeous reporting of findings, and multi-site data mapping.
The aim of this report is to disseminate findings of the pilot of the digitized PCR-positive tool to initiate discussions for implementation in districts and sub-districts with high vertical HIV transmission (VHT) rates across South Africa.