In addition to its other contributions, D-Tree International will improve the delivery of healthcare to HIV positive patients. Without consistent medical records it is difficult to track patients’ medical histories, provide preventative care, or monitor a patient’s progress once they are treated. These problems make the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment programs particularly difficult, as increasingly non-physician providers are needed to screen patients and on-going care is imperative to ensure proper disease-monitoring, antiretroviral therapy (ART) management and adherence, and surveillance for signs of drug resistance. Health care workers simply do not have the knowledge and resources they need to provide patients with adequate care.

D-Tree International will support HIV/AIDS treatment scale up through the development of protocols that allow non-physicians to assume routine care for patients on ART and improve screening methods at all health facilities. In addition, the PDAs will store information about each patient, providing a continuum of care over time and across providers. Patient information will be stored on the PDA, copied to a removable smart card, and backed up on a central computer system. This will allow health care providers to track individual medical histories, including disease history and drug compliance, and will prompt the worker with opportunities for preventative care. This same record will also be an invaluable source of data, as the aggregated patient records will provide managers with information about provider workload, disease patterns, and drug usage or signs of emerging drug resistance.