Improving Access to HIV and AIDS Information Resources for Patients, Caregivers, and Clinicians: Results from the SHINE Project

How Do People Living With HIV Acquire HIV Related Information: A Qualitative Evaluation of Jakarta Setting

Introduction: People living with HIV are fully aware of their risk behavior and future threats that might arise. The rapid progress of HIV serves the population with many options of healthcare services and treatments. Insufficient knowledge and information will only lower the outcomes of HIV eradication efforts. The ultimate goals to eradicate HIV are to upscale status notification and treat all with appropriate antiretroviral and viral suppression, but it needs sufficient information to administer. Programs and interventions have already been proposed, but an inquiry is needed to ensure all the information is actually there. The study aimed to explore the experience of people living with HIV acquiring HIV-related information.Methods: This study used phenomenological qualitative study and in-depth interviews were conducted to 12 people living with HIV. Semi-structured questions were delivered to all participants which explored their tangible experience in terms of nurturing sufficient HIV-related information.Results: The study found four consequential themes:  non-government organizations play a major role in HIV education, peers are a comfortable platform to discuss, it is all over the media and healthcare personnel are a source of knowledge. Conclusion: The distribution of HIV information and knowledge is now widespread. This situation marks   part of the success in fighting HIV. Remarkable attempts can be maintained by optimizing the viable option of information delivery.  Keyword: HIV knowledge; people living with HIV; qualitative study

What's Past is Prologue: A Scoping Review of Recent Public Health and Global Health Informatics Literature

OBJECTIVE

To categorize and describe the public health informatics (PHI) and global health informatics (GHI) literature between 2012 and 2014.

METHODS

We conducted a semi-systematic review of articles published between January 2012 and September 2014 where information and communications technologies (ICT) was a primary subject of the study or a main component of the study methodology. Additional inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to filter PHI and GHI articles from the larger biomedical informatics domain. Articles were identified using MEDLINE as well as personal bibliographies from members of the American Medical Informatics Association PHI and GHI working groups.

RESULTS

A total of 85 PHI articles and 282 GHI articles were identified. While systems in PHI continue to support surveillance activities, we identified a shift towards support for prevention, environmental health, and public health care services. Furthermore, articles from the U.S. reveal a shift towards PHI applications at state and local levels. GHI articles focused on telemedicine, mHealth and eHealth applications. The development of adequate infrastructure to support ICT remains a challenge, although we identified a small but growing set of articles that measure the impact of ICT on clinical outcomes.

DISCUSSION

There is evidence of growth with respect to both implementation of information systems within the public health enterprise as well as a widening of scope within each informatics discipline. Yet the articles also illuminate the need for more primary research studies on what works and what does not as both searches yielded small numbers of primary, empirical articles.

CONCLUSION

While the body of knowledge around PHI and GHI continues to mature, additional studies of higher quality are needed to generate the robust evidence base needed to support continued investment in ICT by governmental health agencies.