E-DRUG: Inventory of antiretroviral (ART) management software
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Dear E-druggers,
More than one year ago I put a mailing on e-drug requesting for
contacts of people working with antiretroviral therapy and its
management software.
Finally I am back with the result, an overview on currently used ART
software, which is also my master thesis in International Health at
the Tropical Institute of Basel.
Below I put the executive summary of the thesis. However, if you are
interested in the whole text and all the tables, please write me an
e-mail on juerg.draeyer@stud.unibas.ch and tell me, that you would
like to have it all. I will then send it to you as a pdf-file by
email. I think it is important, that such findings are shared.
Best regards
Juerg Draeyer, MD
Yeppoon Medical Centre
19 Hill Street
Yeppoon, QLD, 4703
Australia
Mobile: +61 41 517 6487
E-mail: Juerg.Draeyer@stud.unibas.ch
Inventory and evaluation of publicly available computer based
ART-management software in high-level prevalence HIV/AIDS settings
A thesis submitted to the Swiss Tropical Institute, University of
Basel, in partial fulfilment of the TropEd Masters Programme in
International Health
In collaboration with Phasuma, Netherlands, Pharmaceutical Supply
Management Consultancy
by Juerg Draeyer, December, 2007
Executive Summary:
This paper gives an overview of existing computer based ART-management
software. Requirements for a good and useful ART-management software
are discussed. Advantages and disadvantages of the different software
according to defined criteria are described and recommendations are
made for further development of ART management software.
Good and useful ART management software would cover at least all of
the following areas: Patient management (ARV management, adherence
control), pharmacy management (stock control and forecasting),
statistical abilities for epidemiological follow up and scaling up
capacity (front end, back end and medicine forecasting). Only 3 of the
27 evaluated software meet these minimal requirements, which are
FoCaMed, HAART ART Software by Conry soft and iDART. However, of the
12 software with only patient management all meet the respective
minimal requirements whereas from the 4 software with only pharmacy
management, only one meets the minimal requirements. This is mainly
due to the lack of scaling up capacity.
Besides of the minimal requirements, the following factors are
important, when choosing appropriate software for an ART project:
Language of the software, current users, basic architecture, computer
requirements, skills required for installation, security and costs. An
overview is provided with the discussion of the advantages and
disadvantages of the different software but no general recommendations
are made as the needs vary according to the needs of the different ART
projects.
For further development of ART management software it is important
that the minimal requirements are met and that in particular patient
and pharmacy management are combined and linked in order to improve
ART management and consequently also the outcome of the patients.
Ideally international minimal standards for ART management software
should be established, which are more specific to computer software
than the existing recommendations.