Overview

Details

This session contains two 40 minute panels.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends implementation of a strong national surveillance system to serve as a foundation for monitoring the HIV epidemic and providing signals for public health response as countries approach and sustain HIV epidemic control. Using comprehensive strategic HIV information systems to establish HIV Case surveillance (CS) provides high-quality, timely, and reliable data across the different levels of a health care system (1, 2).

This panel will include three African country representatives sharing their experiences leveraging routine health information systems to facilitate HIV case surveillance, with technical support from The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Panellists will provide an overview of key information systems that support reporting data flow for HIV case surveillance, record linkage, and data use platforms in their countries.

Each panellist will share experiences establishing HIV case surveillance based on the following aspects of implementation: Policy and governance (including ethics and security), capacity development, information systems, and record linkage and deduplication of case surveillance records.

Digital health solutions are heralded as a strategic asset for overcoming healthcare accessibility issues, but they may also exacerbate existing disparities in health outcomes. The digital divide is multidimensional, insidious, and represents a risk to global health prospects. Healthcare stakeholders must evolve beyond technocentric approaches to understand and, empathically, navigate the digital divide with citizens and patients. There are critical blind spots for which innovation is required to bridge the digital divide in healthcare. The multisectoral panel will present frontline insights and experiences to drive digital inclusion and healthcare equity as a global priority.

Speaker