Strategic Information Department

About The Strategic Information Department

The Strategic Information (SI) Department manages the documentation, analysis, reporting, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. It guides decision making for quality programs. It comprises of three sub-units: Program Monitoring and Evaluation, Health Informatics and Surveillance and Implementation Science Unit.

The Program Monitoring and Evaluation Unit routinely oversees the collection and collation of program level data from all supported health facilities for monitoring purposes. The data collated is used to generate program level indicator reports for the Government of Nigeria, the funding agencies and the Institute on a monthly, quarterly and semi-annual and annual basis. These inform program implementation decisions and show progress towards achieving set targets. The unit is also responsible for developing, modifying and deployment of Data Collection Tools (DCT) in line with the national system. Capacity building for supported health facilities, and provision of technical assistance to these facilities and the Government of Nigeria also fall under the deliverables of this unit.

Surveillance and Implementation Science Unit is responsible for analysing, interpreting and summarizing program and patient level data. The unit routinely collects and analyses data from the Electronic Medical Record System (EMR) and

reports on newly diagnosed HIV cases, estimates of HIV incidence, estimate of HIV burden, treatment outcomes among People Living with HIV etc. to disseminate within the Institute and to a public health authority. This informs prevention strategies.

The Health Informatics unit is responsible for implementing and maintaining all information management systems within the organization. The Institute currently has systems in place that manage both patient and program level data. The unit also develop electronic tools and software programs to manage the huge data generated from the Institute’s multiple projects.

The electronic Patient Management and Monitoring system being used by the Institute is the Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS) software designed to capture longitudinal data on patient's clinical encounters across the different service delivery points. The unit is also responsible for implementing and maintaining DHIS 2.0 web-based platform used for collection, collation and analysis of aggregate program level data for reporting. The other activities of the unit include, providing technical support and trainings on all the various platforms.

Unit contact email: [email protected]

About The Health Informatics Unit

The Health Informatics unit is responsible for the resources, devices, methods and technologies required to optimally acquire, store, retrieve and use information for the Institute’s programs.

It supports the use of patient monitoring and management tools to capture longitudinal data of clinical encounters. These encounters include clinical evaluation, pharmacy records, laboratory results, adherence to medication, and care and support activities.

Between 2004 and 2012, the unit used CAREWare , a software developed by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in 14 health facilities. In 2014, it switched to implementing a free and open source software application called OpenMRS as the standard platform for recording patient clinical visits. OpenMRS a multi-institution, non-profit collaborative electronic medical record system. The unit has participated in the development and implementation of OPENMRS in health facilities supported by the Institute.

It also implements the use of District Health Information Software – Version 2 (DHIS 2), a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for program monitoring, data collection and reporting. The software is customized to collect indicators in monthly summary to report outputs in areas such as adult/pediatric Anti-Retroviral

Treatment (ART). Other output areas include, pharmacy, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), care and support, HIV testing services, and laboratory services across all supported health facilities.

The Open Data Kit (ODK), a free and open-source suite of tools that helps organizations author, field and manage mobile data collection solutions is another software implemented by the unit. ODK has been customized to report monthly indicator report in areas like HIV Counseling and Testing, PMTCT, pharmacy, antiretroviral treatment and laboratory across health facilities supported by the Institute.

Other activities of the unit include;

• Electronic Medical Record System development administration, troubleshooting and upgrades. across all supported health/non-health sector facilities.
• System upgrade and maintenance to meet national and international standards.
• Development of a central repository that will house all data from different sources.
• Mobile reporting application that captures indicators from sites to the central repository.
• Development and maintenance of data repository for easy visualization of activities.
• Provision of software development services to the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) biorepository project.
• Oversight and supervision of all Health Management Information System (HMIS) pilots and projects.
• Technical support to program areas and supported sites on patient information systems.
• Data quality assurance activities that range from data cleaning, gap analyses and validation.
• Recruitment, training and supervision of data human resources.

Support for quality improvement program implementation.

Unit contact email: [email protected]

About The Program Monitoring and Evaluation Unit

We are responsible for collecting and collating data on services carried out in the different programs that IHVN implements. The unit also reports organizational achievements on the United States Government DATIM reporting platform on a quarterly basis and ensures that reported data meet required standards.

Data quality is our watch word. To this end, we carry out routine data quality assessments and institutionalize reporting processes to enhance quality.

Our activities also include, making sure that necessary Data Collection Tools (DCTs) are available at all service delivery points and offering adequate training for personnel on the use of these tools. DCTs are modified and updated regularly as the need arises in accordance to the guidelines laid down by National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA). All the facilities we support also use Government of Nigeria approved DCTs.

On a monthly basis, the Institute collates data from health facilities that we support using summary reports entered into the DHIS2 Health Management Information Platform; this is analyzed to reflect our progress towards meeting set targets.

Our quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports are all generated from the DHIS2 platform. These reports are shared first with service delivery facilities, then to the Ministry of Health, our donors and other regulatory authorities as required.

Information gathered is used by all levels of management within the institute and service delivery facilities to improve processes and ensure achievement of excellent results using the cost-effective methods.

Unit contact email: [email protected]

About The SIS Unit

The Surveillance and Implementation Science (SIS) Unit focuses on three areas,

• Recency testing surveillance
• Case-Based surveillance
• Viral Load surveillance

The unit routinely collects and analyses data from the Electronic Medical Record System (EMR) and reports on newly diagnosed HIV cases, estimates of HIV incidence, estimate of HIV burden, treatment outcomes among People Living with HIV etc. for dissemination within the Institute and to a public health authority. This informs prevention strategies.

On a monthly basis, the Institute collates data from health facilities that we support using summary reports entered into the DHIS2 Health Management Information Platform; this is analyzed to reflect our progress towards meeting set targets.

Unit contact email: [email protected]