The Houston Medical
Monitoring Project (HMMP) is a special HIV/AIDS surveillance
project that is being funded by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the Houston Department
of Health and Human Services (HDHHS).
Houston is one of 23 state and city sites
participating in the MMP. The project will link patient reported
behavioral information collected by questionnaire with clinical
information abstracted from medical charts.
These two sources of information will be used
to get the most accurate picture of health care service utilization
and illnesses experienced among persons with HIV/AIDS in Houston/Harris
County.
PROJECT
GOALS
The MMP
aims to gain a deeper understanding of health-related experiences
and needs of people living with HIV/AIDS who receive HIV care
in the U.S. The goals of the project are to:
- Provide
a wide array of local and national estimates of behaviors
and clinical outcomes of persons in care for HIV
- Describe
health-related behaviors
- Determine
accessibility and use of prevention and support services
- Iincrease
knowledge of the care and treatment provided
- Examine
variations of factors by geographic area and patient characteristics
SIGNIFICANCE
People living with HIV/AIDS, HIV prevention community
planning groups, Ryan White CARE Act planning councils and consortia,
providers of HIV care, and other policy makers and service planners
may use MMP data for planning and prevention activities. MMP will
provide valuable state and national estimates of health care utilization,
quality of care, severity of needs, and effectiveness of prevention
messages. MMP data may help estimate resource needs for treatment and
services for HIV-infected persons. To be effective, programs must
meet the current needs of the population. MMP data will provide
contextual information on prevention, care-seeking, treatment, and risk
behaviors which will aid in the design and improvement of HIV programs.
PROJECT PROCEDURES
To implement the project, state and local
health departments have identified all HIV care providers in their respective
areas. A representative sample of these providers is then chosen.
The health departments contact all sampled providers and later, patients
are randomly selected from those providers. The MMP has two components:
a personal interview and medical record abstraction. MMP staff
invite each selected patient to participate in a face-to-face interview.
The interview takes approximately 45 minutes and includes questions
concerning their medical history, use of medical and social services,
and risk behaviors. Trained MMP medical abstractors will then
collect additional information from the patient’s medical chart
which complements the data from the interview. MMP will take measures
to assure the project is not burdensome to providers or participating
patients. State and local health department representatives conduct all data collection activities in order not to disrupt providers,
their staff, or services to their patients. Participants are compensated
for their time. All personal and health care information collected
during the project is secure and confidential.
HOW WILL PROVIDERS
AND PATIENTS BE IDENTIFIED?
Houston will use a two-stage sampling scheme.
The first stage will randomly sample providers; the second stage will
randomly sample patients from within providers. The sampling frame of
providers will be defined so that the likelihood of selection will be
based on the number of cases reported. A provider is defined as a hospital,
clinic or other health facility that keeps the patients medical records.
The sampling frame will be constructed based on providers identified
in the HIV/AIDS Reporting System (HARS). From each provider’s
patient list, all patients who meet the specific eligibility criteria
determined by the protocol will be included for sampling in the study.
Eligibility and stratification variables will be determined in consultation
with CDC.
WHAT
IS THE TIMELINE FOR HMMP?
The MMP is currently funded through May 2014.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HMMP?
The information obtained from the MMP will provide a consistent method
for state and city health departments to measure important aspect of
morbidity, access, and use of preventive services. It will help identify
service gaps for people in care for HIV/AIDS infection and help focus
more on provision of preventive services.
HOW
CAN YOU HELP?
Patients, providers, and the community
play a huge role in making MMP a success. Patients and providers who
participate represent other patients and providers who were not chosen.
If you are chosen, you are encouraged to participate. The success
of the MMP depends on you! If you are not chosen, you can still
help by encouraging others to participate. Remember, this data will
be used to represent patients getting care for HIV in your state and
across the country. MMP results can have a big effect on future HIV
prevention, care, and quality of life for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Everyone's participation is essential. Together, we can learn much more
about the ever-changing nature of HIV infection.
Site last updated on July 17, 2011
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