[afro-nets] RFI: Software to manage data and needs of people onantiretroviral treatment (3)

["Tunga Simbini" <tsimbini@medsch.uz.ac.zw>]

RFI: Software to manage data and needs of people on antiretroviral treatment (3)
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Hilbrand,

There are a number of options. The one that is being promoted significantly is the openMRS. You can access it on the openMRS wiki site: 
http://openmrs.org/wiki/OpenMRS. 
Yes it is openSource and it has been
developed for developing countries.

>Should international agencies (WHO? UNAIDS? Others?) provide support here?

Now this is an interesting question. The situation on the ground currently is whoever is implementing the system generally provides the support. There are so many players in HIV/AIDS care. There are those who provide the medication, these are not necessarily the same people who are interested in data management. So the question then is should these data management systems be integrated into ART care in order to support them too? Agreed it is crucial to support these systems once they are put in place, what we have currently is isolated implementation with no real policy or framework on long term support. Again adopting these systems means they should be able to comply with the expected reporting systems, be they national, regional, or international.

For now I think you will be in the right direction if you look at openMRS as there is potential for addressing these concerns. Proprietary software might not be future proof  i.e. adopting to future changes.

Tunga Simbini
mailto:tsimbini@medsch.uz.ac.zw