Data collection for prevention\u00a0<\/p>\n
Improving surveillance and access to data has been critical to The Bahamas\u2019 EMTCT success, enabling health workers to better track and support pregnant women living with HIV across the continuum of care, and providing decision-makers with the information needed to identify gaps, guide interventions, and ensure the timely procurement of diagnostics and treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHIV is a reportable condition in the Bahamas,\u201d explains Glenise Johnson, epidemiologist with The Bahamas\u2019 Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW). \u201cAnd identifying women who tested positive, is one of our first lines of defense for preventing mother-to-child transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Bren\u00e9e Wallace, a data analyst in the MoHW surveillance unit, one of the biggest challenges was data fragmentation. \u201cData was not readily available in one centralized space. Clinical data was in this book and that book, and then we would have to retroactively look for years,\u201d she explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response, teams across the public and private sectors worked together to consolidate information, validate records, and create a centralized platform that could track cases from diagnosis through pregnancy, delivery, and beyond.<\/p>\n
This shift changed how institutions worked together. \u201cPreviously everyone was kind of operating in a silo,\u201d Wallace notes. \u201cBut this project has forced us to realize that we have to talk to each other and share that information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New protocols, standardized reporting, and joint data systems have now connected clinics, laboratories, and national programs, ensuring that test results, treatment, and pregnancies are accounted for. This, combined with coordinated partnership and universal access to free antenatal care and treatment, removed critical barriers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cProviding care and medication for the treatment of HIV at no cost to patients, especially pregnant women, has been invaluable to The Bahamas and removes the need for women to choose between other expenses and seeking care,\u201d explains Phillip Swann, health information systems lead at the MoHW.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Data collection for prevention\u00a0 Improving surveillance and access to data has been critical to The Bahamas\u2019 EMTCT success,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-412013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}