Improving HIV Surveillance Data for Public Health Action in Washington, DC: A Novel Multiorganizational Data-Sharing...

Area of Science:

• Public Health Surveillance
• Data Science
• Epidemiology

Background:

• National HIV/AIDS Strategy emphasizes active surveillance for HIV care continuum monitoring.
• Traditional surveillance faces data sharing barriers due to technological and privacy concerns.
• Cross-jurisdictional travel complicates accurate HIV surveillance in areas like DC, MD, and VA.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop and evaluate a novel data-sharing approach for HIV surveillance.
• Improve the timeliness and quality of HIV surveillance data.
• Address data sharing challenges in multi-jurisdictional settings.

Main Methods:

• Developed a deterministic algorithm with a person-matching system using Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System (eHARS) variables.
• Categorized person matching from exact to very low strength.
• Verified algorithm through component testing, code inspection, and output examination; validated by jurisdictions.

Main Results:

• Matched 21,472 individuals across DC, MD, and VA from 161,343 eHARS records in under 22 minutes.
• Over 80% of matches were exact or very high.
• Validation methods confirmed ≥90% accuracy compared to traditional matching.

Conclusions:

• Novel data-sharing approach enhances HIV surveillance data quality and timeliness for public health.
• Reduced manual effort in person-matching without compromising accuracy.
• Potential for broader application in public health surveillance data sharing.