Programme Managers Learn To Improve Quality of Care Through OR

As part of its professional development efforts, the IAS brought together HIV programme managers for a two-day pre-conference workshop to learn how to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of service delivery through operations research (OR). Twenty-five managers from 19 different countries -- including 17 in Africa -- participated in the session.

Presentations from leading faculty members – Dr. George Schmid (WHO/CDC), Dr. Tony Harries (International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) and Dr. Rony Zachariah (Médecins Sans Frontières) – gave participants an overview of OR, demystifying the concept and the processes involved in it. As Dr. Schmid remarked, "OR does not have to be complex to be effective."

The global economic climate has stimulated further interest in OR as a way to improve the efficiency of HIV programmes. The session emphasized that effective OR need not be expensive. For example, it presented case studies from Malawi showing how small research grants of US$450-1,800 to study programmes to scale up treatment and better manage TB yielded results that influenced national policy and changed practice.

On a visit to the Khayelitsha HIV-TB clinic, participants met with staff from MSF and saw first-hand how OR could be used to improve care in a resource-poor setting. The example of integrating OR into a busy primary care delivery site demolished the naïve but too-common conception that research cannot be a routine part of health care programmes.

Dr. Harries advised participants to be strategic in conducting research by getting stakeholders involved from the start, building partnerships, and being pragmatic in their choice of research questions. It is also important to provide "bits of information" that can be digested by decision makers. The workshop also emphasized the need to publish research and disseminate findings at meetings and conferences, and to integrate scientific writing and publishing skills into capacity-building initiatives.

As a pilot project, this IAS Professional Development Programme benefitted from a partnership with the WHO Department of HIV/AIDS, WHO Tropical Diseases Research, The Global Fund, The Lung Union and MSF.

The IAS 2009 conference is featuring a new track on operations research, which is intended to further emphasize one of the defining characteristics of the meeting: examining how scientific advances can be translated into practical interventions that respond to current challenges in HIV prevention, treatment and care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. On Sunday, the IAS and the Lung Union are hosting a satellite session on OR -- Learning by Doing? Operational Research to Strengthen HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment Scale-up in Resource-Limited Settings: What, Why and How? On Wednesday, a plenary presentation by Gerald Friedland will address Advances in Operations Research Addressing the Convergent HIV and TB Epidemics.

Update from Gurmit Singh (3 August 2009):

George Schmid and his rapporteur team's Operations Research Track D reports are now available here.

Check them out and see if the lessons learnt from this research presented could help you with developing your OR protocols.