Laboratory Data Timeliness and Completeness Improves Following Implementation of an Electronic Laboratory Information System in Côte d'Ivoire: Quasi-Experimental Study on 21 Clinical Laboratories From 2014 to 2020.

BACKGROUND: The Ministry of Health in Côte d'Ivoire and the International Training and Education Center for Health at the University of Washington, funded by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, have been collaborating to develop and implement the Open-Source Enterprise-Level Laboratory Information System (OpenELIS). The system is designed to improve HIV-related laboratory data management and strengthen quality management and capacity at clinical laboratories across the nation. OBJECTIVE: This evaluation aimed to quantify the effects of implementing OpenELIS on data quality for laboratory tests related to HIV care and treatment. METHODS: This evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to perform an interrupted time-series analysis to estimate the changes in the level and slope of 3 data quality indicators (timeliness, completeness, and validity) after OpenELIS implementation. We collected paper and electronic records on clusters of differentiation 4 (CD4) testing for 48 weeks before OpenELIS adoption until 72 weeks after. Data collection took place at 21 laboratories in 13 health regions that started using OpenELIS between 2014 and 2020. We analyzed the data at the laboratory level. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) by comparing the observed outcomes with modeled counterfactual ones when the laboratories did not adopt OpenELIS. RESULTS: There was an immediate 5-fold increase in timeliness (OR 5.27, 95% CI 4.33-6.41; P<.001) and an immediate 3.6-fold increase in completeness (OR 3.59, 95% CI 2.40-5.37; P<.001). These immediate improvements were observed starting after OpenELIS installation and then maintained until 72 weeks after OpenELIS adoption. The weekly improvement in the postimplementation trend of completeness was significant (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.05; P<.001). The improvement in validity was not statistically significant (OR 1.34, 95% CI 0.69-2.60; P=.38), but validity did not fall below pre-OpenELIS levels. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the value of electronic laboratory information systems in improving laboratory data quality and supporting evidence-based decision-making in health care. These findings highlight the importance of OpenELIS in Côte d'Ivoire and the potential for adoption in other low- and middle-income countries with similar health systems.

Development and national scale implementation of an open-source electronic laboratory information system (OpenELIS) in Côte d'Ivoire: Sustainability lessons from the first 13 years.

PURPOSE: Côte d'Ivoire has a tiered public health laboratory system of 9 reference laboratories, 77 laboratories at regional and general hospitals, and 100 laboratories among 1,486 district health centers. Prior to 2009, nearly all of these laboratories used paper registers and reports to collect and report laboratory data to clinicians and national disease monitoring programs. PROJECT: Since 2009 the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Côte d'Ivoire has sought to implement a comprehensive set of activities aimed at strengthening the laboratory system. One of these activities is the sustainable development, expansion, and technical support of an open-source electronic laboratory information system (OpenELIS), with the long-term goal of Ivorian technical support and managerial sustainment of the system. This project has addressed the need for a comprehensive, customizable, low- to no-cost, open-source LIS to serve the public health systems with initial attention to HIV clients and later expansion to cover the general population. This descriptive case study presents the first published summary of original work which has been ongoing since 2009 in Côte d'Ivoire to transform the laboratory information management systems and processes nationally. IMPACT: OpenELIS is now in use at 106 laboratories across Côte d'Ivoire. This article describes the iterative planning, design, and implementation process of OpenELIS in Côte d'Ivoire, and the evolving leadership, ownership, and capacity of the Ivorian MOH in sustaining the system. This original work synthesizes lessons learned from this 13-year experience towards strengthening laboratory information systems in other low resource settings.

Adaptation of an electronic dashboard to monitor HIV viral load testing in Côte d'Ivoire.

BACKGROUND: The Ministère de le Santé et de l'Hygiène Publique in Côte d'Ivoire and the international community have invested in health information systems in Côte d'Ivoire since 2009, including electronic laboratory information systems. These systems have been implemented in more than 80 laboratories to date and capture all test results produced from these laboratories, including HIV viral load (VL) testing. In 2018 the national HIV programme in Côte d'Ivoire requested international support to develop real-time tools such as dashboards to aggregate and display test-specific data such as HIV VL testing to support the country's programmatic response to HIV. INTERVENTION: The VL dashboard was adapted in 2018 using source software code obtained from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and modified for the Ivorian context. The dashboard enables users to assess relevant clinical data from all Ivoirians living with HIV who undergo VL testing through dashboard data visualisations, including the number of VL tests, kinds of samples tested, and VL levels stratified by demographics and geographic location. LESSONS LEARNT: The VL dashboard enables rapid analysis of VL testing data from across the country and enables the national HIV programme, donors and partners to respond rapidly to issues pertaining to access, turn-around times and others. RECOMMENDATIONS: Adapting existing open-source software is an effective and efficient way to implement transformative tools such as dashboards. The VL dashboard will likely be an essential tool for Côte d'Ivoire to meet the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 90-90-90 targets.

Evaluation of the impact of a mobile health system on adherence to antenatal and postnatal care and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programs in Kenya.

BACKGROUND: The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) implemented in Western Kenya a mobile Health tool that uses text messages to coordinate Community Health Worker (CHW) activities around antenatal care (ANC) and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT), named the ANC/PMTCT Adherence System (APAS). METHODS: End-user changes in health-seeking behavior in ANC and postnatal care (PNC) were investigated following registration of 800 women into APAS. These investigations employed interviews of pregnant women or new mothers (n = 67) and CHWs (n = 20). Ordinal logistic regressions and exact binomial tests were used in the routine data analyses (n = 650, health registers). RESULTS: All CHWs interviewed agreed that APAS helped them track pregnant woman efficiently, compared to paper-based tracking forms. Women registered in APAS reported that CHWs reminded them of appointments more regularly than before its inception. The routine data analysis showed that among women who had their 1(st) ANC visit in the 2(nd) trimester, women who resided in the MVP cluster and were in APAS had: 3 times the odds of going for more ANC visits compared to women who were not registered (but resided in the cluster), after adjusting for the mother's HIV status in the multivariate model (Adjusted OR = 2.58, 95% CI [1.10-6.01]); twice the odds of going for more ANC visits compared to women who were not registered and resided outside the cluster (Adjusted OR = 2.37, 95% CI [0.99-5.67]) Among women not registered, residence inside or outside the cluster did not affect the number of ANC visits made (Adjusted OR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.45-1.69]). The APAS also greatly increased the likelihood of women making the 6 recommended post-delivery baby follow-ups. For women registered in APAS, the MTCT rate at 18 months was significantly different from that of women not registered, and from the global rate of 30%. Women not registered had a 9% MTCT rate at 18 months regardless of residence, while women registered had a 0% transmission rate at both 9 and 18 months. CONCLUSIONS: The incorporation of mHealth tools in CHW programs can improve adherence to ANC and PNC and enhance PMTCT efforts.

The importance of using open source technologies and common standards for interoperability within eHealth: perspectives from the Millennium Villages Project.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the importance of using open source technologies and common standards for interoperability when implementing eHealth systems, and to illustrate this through case studies, where possible. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The sources used to inform this chapter draw from the implementation and evaluation of the eHealth Program in the context of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). FINDINGS: As the eHealth Team was tasked to deploy an eHealth architecture, the Millennium Villages Global-Network (MVG-Net), across all 14 of the MVP sites in sub-Saharan Africa, the team not only recognized the need for standards and uniformity but also realized that context would be an important factor. Therefore, the team decided to utilize open source solutions. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The MVP implementation of MVG-Net provides a model for those looking to implement informatics solutions across disciplines and countries. Furthermore, there are valuable lessons learned that the eHealth community can benefit from. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: By sharing lessons learned and developing an accessible, open source eHealth platform, we believe that we can more efficiently and rapidly achieve the health-related and collaborative Millennium Development Goals.