Person-centred HIV patient monitoring
HIV patient monitoring is essential to ensure the quality and continuity of HIV care, as well as treatment for adults, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and infants and children. It generates data that enable programmes to monitor the treatment and health status of patients over time, and to measure programme performance across health facilities and geographical settings.
Patient monitoring systems also serve as the underlying data source for programme monitoring, making them an integral part of health information systems and the overall health system in many countries. They contribute to the delivery of HIV services, as well as a range of integrated services including HIV and tuberculosis, and HIV and maternal, child and newborn health.
An effective HIV patient monitoring system also permits the measurement of standardized indicators at the subnational and national levels for in-country and global reporting, and the use of a minimum dataset that captures key events in an individual’s interaction with the health system. HIV patient monitoring tools and the recommended minimum dataset for HIV testing and treatment and care are available as annexes to the 2022 Consolidated guidelines on person-centred HIV strategic information: strengthening routine data for impact.
Key areas of work
ARV toxicity monitoring
WHO recommends countries monitor the toxicity of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to ensure patient safety and effective treatment outcomes. This involves assessing adverse drug reactions including cardiometabolic events such as weight gain using a range of approaches including surveillance of drug safety in pregnancy and active and routine toxicity monitoring in all populations.
Data quality improvement
High-quality data is crucial for the successful implementation of HIV programmes. WHO recommends countries implement data quality assessments integrated within long term data improvement strategies. A range of tools and materials have been developed jointly by WHO, UNAIDS and The Global Fund. These resources support efficient service delivery and evidence-based decision-making:
Monitoring and evaluation of differentiated service delivery of HIV treatment
WHO recommends strengthening the monitoring and reporting of differentiated service delivery (DSD) of HIV treatment to ensure they meet the diverse needs of people living with HIV. This includes tracking implementation and coverage as well as retention in care and viral load suppression to improve treatment outcomes and programmatic efficiency. These indicators are included in the Global AIDS Monitoring and our priority indicators recommended by WHO. Further guidance on WHO recommendations for DSD ART strategic information can be found here:
Latest policy guidance
Technical documents
This technical brief provides an overview of the critical role of high-quality data in effective HIV programme implementation, highlighting WHO guidance...
WHO Data quality assessment of national and partner monitoring data and system implementation tool –...
This technical brief summarizes key updates to the 2018 Data quality assessment of national and partner HIV treatment and patient monitoring data and systems...
Module for assessing and strengthening the quality of viral load testing data within HIV programmes andpatient...
This technical update of the 2020 viral load data quality module provides further guidance on the recommended data quality assurance activities, updated...
Policy brief on integrating and strengthening monitoring of differentiated ART service delivery
These recommendations include approaches for differentiated service delivery (DSD) of antiretroviral therapy (ART) that are less intensive and provide...
Digital adaptation kit for HIV: operational requirements for implementing WHO recommendations and standards...
This DAK has been superseded by the 2024 Digital adaptation kit for HIV, second edition.Digital Adaptation Kits (DAKs) are part of the WHO SMART guidelines...
Module for assessing and strengthening the quality of viral load testing data within HIV programmes and...
The overarching goal of this module is to support the assessment of data quality (DQ), strengthen data and patient monitoring systems and support data...
In April 2020, new directions in global guidance for HIV strategic information and treatment monitoring were updated. This technical update outlines the...
Data quality assessment of national and partner HIV treatment and patient monitoring data and systems...
In the past decade, national programmes and donor-funded projects have made great progress in reaching people living with HIV with life-saving treatment...
Implementation tool for pre-exposure prophylaxis of HIV infection - Monitoring and evaluation
WHO's oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation tool serves as practical toolkit on how to consider the introduction of PrEP and start implementation....
Webinar
25 November 2022 - WHO webinar on toxicity monitoring approaches for new antiretrovirals: strengthening country planning and implementation 2022 and 2023
Related topics and links