WHO and SNAP conduct training for health workers on the HIV/AIDS electronic patient monitoring system3 March 2013 – The World Health Organization (WHO) Sudan hosted a training programme for 12 health workers drawn from three health facilities, as well as programme coordinators from the Khartoum State and Federal programmes.

The training was the first step in deploying an electronic patient monitoring system developed by the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The three facilities were selected by the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme as pilot sites for installing and operating the software. It is hoped that the software will be rolled out to all of the 32 HIV treatment sites in Sudan before the end of the year.

The software makes it easy to monitor patient appointments and generate various reports that will be used to monitor national treatment coverage and outcome indicators. It has the potential for expansion to TB patient monitoring and monitoring coverage of HIV testing and counselling.

Dr Endalamaw Aberra of WHO’s HIV/AIDS Team welcomed participants and pledged that WHO would do all it could to make the system work to improve the quality of recording and reporting. Meanwhile, Dr Elsheikh Nugud, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit Head at the Sudan National HIV/AIDS Control Programme, thanked WHO for its support in initiating this vital project. He expressed the hope that the lessons learnt in the three pilot facilities would ensure a smooth roll out of the software to all HIV treatment facilities.