Barker PM, McCannon CJ, Mehta N, Green C, Youngleson MS, Yarrow J, Bennett B, Berwick DM. Strategies for the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy in South Africa through health system optimization. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2007 Dec;196(S3):S457-S463.

There is a need for additional approaches to spread effective interventions for treating persons with AIDS that can leverage existing resources and the much-needed infusions of new resources. This article describes one such approach — applied in several forms in South Africa — that aims to significantly increase the number of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy.

National Quality Center (NQC)
New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute for the Health Resources and Services Administration's HIV/AIDS Bureau
New York, New York, USA

This executive summary provides an overview of feedback gathered from Ryan White Program Part B Grantees on their efforts to implement and/or enhance quality managment programs in their service area.

Kofi OG, Lindsey J. Saving children, enhancing lives. Combating HIV and AIDS in South Africa. United Nations Children’s Fund and UNICEF South Africa. Second Edition, June 2006.

This report discusses the challenges and solutions of treating children infected with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Highlighted is the progress in the availability of antiretroviral therapy made during the 2005-06 calendar year, including a collaborative effort between the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and local community-based clinics. The Centre for Rural Health Partnership aims to have all HIV- and AIDS-infected children and adults on treatment in KwaZulu-Natal’s Umkanyakude district by the end of 2007.

Full text available! Click view report below.

Barker PM, McCannon J, Venter WDF, Mmbara NW. Managing HIV as a chronic disease: Using interactive data collection to improve clinical care. The Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine. 2004 Nov:7-11.

As South Africa and the rest of the developing world respond to the AIDS crisis, a critical task will be to develop scalable systems for sustainable and effective delivery of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in a variety of resource-restricted settings. The authors consider how ARV allows us to manage HIV/AIDS as a chronic disease, and the data systems that are required to support this approach to therapy.

Full text available! Click view article below.

Health Resources and Services Administration. Providing HIV/AIDS Care in a Changing Environment: Self-Management and the Chronic Care Model. HRSA CAREAction. January 2006.

This edition of the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) CareAction Newsletter details the Chronic Care Model (CCM) and describes HIV/AIDS-specific recommendations for developing a self-management curriculum.

Massoud R, Askov K, Reinke J, Franco LM, Bornstein T, Knebel E, MacAulay C. A modern paradigm for improving healthcare quality. QA Monograph Series 1. Bethesda, Maryland: US Agency for International Development (USAID) by the Quality Assurance Project; 2001.

This publication describes four approaches to quality improvement: individual problem solving, rapid team problem solving, systematic team problem solving, and performance improvement. Included are various activities and tools used in quality improvement practices.

Joint Commission Resources
Oak Brook, Illinois, USA; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; 2006

Patients as Partners guides providers through the process of including patients and families in patient safety efforts and care decisions. Features special discussion of the effects of varying health literacy levels and cultural perspectives.

Landon BE, Wilson IB, McInnes K, et al. Effects of a quality improvement collaborative on the outcome of care of patients with HIV infection: The EQHIV study. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2004 Jun;140(11):887-896.

An evaluation of the first HIV/AIDS collaborative sponsored by the HIV/AIDS Bureau. This study notes positive significant results for only a small number of teams who originally joined the collaborative improvement initiative.

Strathdee SA, Palepa A, Cornelisse PG, et al. Barriers to the use of free antiretroviral therapy in injection drug users. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1998;280(6):547-549.

The objective of this study was to identify patient and physician characteristics associated with antiretroviral therapy utilization in HIV-infected injection drug users.

Shapiro M, Morton SC, McCaffrey DF, et al. Variations in the care of HIV-infected adults in the United States: Results from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1999;281(24):2305–2315.

This study examined variations in the care received by a national sample representative of the adult US population infected with HIV. The results of the study indicated that inadequate HIV care was commonly reported at the time of interviews conducted from early 1996 to early 1997, but declined to varying degrees by late 1997.