A medical information system for monitoring and controlling of adherence: A case of TASO Uganda Limited

Abstract

The founding of TASO was based on people that were unified by common experiences faced when encountering HIV/AIDS at a time of high stigma, ignorance and discrimination. From a small support group, TASO has since evolved into a Non-Governmental Organization with eleven (11) service centers and four (4) regional offices covering most parts of Uganda. TASO faces the crisis in skilled human resources due to their search for greener pastures elsewhere. One of the ART care package that has not been followed up is the services of a medicine companion and access to real time ART education. Clients also don’t have access to real time appointment date, and medical or counseling history. TASO still faces the challenge of tracking time intervals when drugs are taken, including track of food and fluid intake of clients. This study focused on the development of A Medical Information System for Monitoring and Control of Adherence in TASO Uganda Limited with the aim of boosting the services of the medicine companion, clients having access to real time medical and or counseling history, appointment dates and also tack time intervals as and when drugs are taken including food and fluid intake. Data was collected from respondents through a questionnaire, an interview guide and an observation guide about the system that is currently available within TASO Uganda. A Medical Information System for Monitoring and Control of Adherence was developed using Microsoft Structured Query Language (Ms SQL) Server 2008 and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).The results from the system indicate, to a large extent, that the system solves the problem of missing appointments, little access to ART education, lack of real time access to medical and counseling history, and also the non-tracking of fluid and food intake including drug time intervals. The study further recommends that to make maximum value of this system, the introduction of a function to handle dietary proportions intake into this system and the introduction of geographic information system (GIS) technology into this system to identify geographic areas of high and low ART adherence for easy follow up is ideal.