Technical Services » Health Informatics

Futures Group applies its health informatics expertise in numerous countries, with emphasis on

  • HIV Care and Treatment
  • HMIS Development and Implementation

HIV Care and Treatment

According to the World Health Organization, every day “more than 6,800 people become infected with HIV and more than 5,700 die” due primarily to a lack of access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care services. Seeking to positively change current statistics, Futures Group supports HIV care and treatment providers worldwide in collecting and using data for improved outcomes. Specifically, Futures Group’s strategy is to provide a set of highly configurable tools with comprehensive reporting capability as freely available solutions to HIV/AIDS clinics and hospitals in resource-poor countries.

Using those tools, the Futures Group team builds capacity at local partner treatment facilities to develop strong patient monitoring and management systems that collect and track strategic information. Under the PEPFAR Track 1.0 AIDSRelief Project, Futures Group uses training modules, technical assistance, and continuous quality assurance to promote a data use culture at local partner treatment facilities. By collecting strategic information, the providers are able to offer higher quality HIV care and treatment, chronic disease management, and viral resistance monitoring.

HMIS Development and Implementation

Futures Group has extensive experience in developing flexible data collection instruments for enhanced data use and analysis for a variety of users with disparate technical capacities. Its International Quality Solutions (IQSolutions), a robust library of M&E tools, provides the key components for adaptive program management, healthcare quality, and clinical sustainability. These data tools are available as open-source software; Futures Group provides technical assistance to users on product enhancement, adaptation, and use. Recognizing the unique needs of each country and each hospital, different systems within IQSolutions are used to meet varying capacity levels and needs of care and treatment providers.

Futures Group’s informatics IQSolutions tools include IQCare, IQChart, IQTools, IQTraining, IQReports, and IQGeo. The requirements for these products were driven by the needs of the field and developed through collaboration with local experts and practical field experience. Futures Group deploys IQSolutions systems in over 212 hospitals, clinics, and satellite locations throughout Africa and the Caribbean.

As an example, IQCare is a comprehensive data capture and reporting system with patient management tools designed to measure patient outcomes. IQCare helps clinics collect clean and accurate patient data and provides flexible reporting leading to enhanced data use and analysis. It is currently in use at over 100 clinics in four countries—Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Recognizing the achievements of IQCare, a panel representing the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other international public health institutions remarked in a May 2009 review that “…the IQCare system…came up top in terms of overall features (technical and nontechnical) and also in terms of largest number of installations so far made…”