Quality Management Systems for HIV Testing
Course description
South Africa has an estimated 5 million persons infected with HIV. Rapid HIV testing has been adopted as a strategy to test millions of persons to implement major initiatives for prevention, treatment, and care. In addition to expanding access to testing, there is also a need to improve the quality and staff capabilities at more than 4,000 existing testing sites. Effective HIV testing programs include quality systems to assure continuous monitoring and support for test sites and staff in addition to evaluations of individual HIV rapid tests and testing algorithms. To strengthen the performance and supervision at HIV testing sites, this course aims to develop the knowledge and skills in testing operations.
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The course consists of content presented through lecture, demonstration, paper-based exercises, hands-on practice, group discussion, interactive games, video presentation and role-play. These methods are used to illustrate the performance of HIV rapid tests, and how to systematically assure the accuracy and reliably of testing following a quality systems approach. The course also focuses on monitoring, supervising, and evaluating the performance of test sites. Managing common problems encountered within the test system will also be covered during the course.
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Course goals
Upon completion of the course, the participant will be able to:
- Adopt a quality systems approach to improving the quality of HIV testing
- Develop and implement procedures to prevent errors in the testing process
- Apply ethical conduct to HIV testing
- Keep appropriate records for quality assurance, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation purposes
Target audience
This course is designed for senior technical staff who have responsibilities for monitoring the quality of all testing operations at HIV testing sites
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