ART Centre of Excellence

Centres of Excellence (CoE) in HIV care were established with an objective to set up model treatment centres, impart high-quality training, and undertake operational and clinical research about HIV/ AIDS on a larger scale.

Structure and Activities of Centre of Excellence

Image

The Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) CoE are located in medical colleges and tertiary care centres of high technical repute. The CoE ideally should have an environment that is comfortable for the care provider as well as the beneficiary to obtain optimal results.

• The ART centre of the institution should be an integral part of the CoE as the key centre providing clinical HIV care for persons infected/ affected by HIV.
• There should be a functional integration of the ART centre with CoE.
• Paediatric CoE/ paediatric department, Prevention of Parent to Child Child Transmission (PPTCT) services, laboratory services and inpatient care in the institution should be linked to the CoE to ensure comprehensive HIV care.

Manpower in CoE

• Programme Director - Faculty of the institution associated with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) programme 
• Deputy Programme Director- identified from the institution

Additionally recruited staff on a contract basis include:

• Research Fellow (Clinical) - 1
• Research Fellow (Non-clinical) - 1
• SACEP Coordinator -1
• Data Analyst – 1
• Training and Mentoring Coordinator – 1
• Laboratory Technician – 1
• Nutritionist – 1
• Outreach Workers/ Social Workers- 2

CoE Team - Multidisciplinary team headed by the Head of the institution. It should consist of trained faculty from the departments of Medicine, Microbiology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Community Medicine, Dermatology and Venereology. This team reviews the functioning of the CoE. Members of this team will also be engaged as resource persons in various training programmes organised by NACO/ State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies (SACS) after their certification as national trainers.

Steering Committee - Headed by the head of the institution. Members of this Committee should include the Programme Director, Deputy Programme Director, Director of concerned SACS and a NACO representative. This committee should meet once in 3 months to review of the functioning of CoE and to sort out any issues related to its functioning.

State AIDS Clinical Expert Panel (SACEP ) consists of - 1) Programme Director of CoE/ Deputy Programme Director/ Nodal Officer of ART centre 2) External ART expert 3) Regional Coordinator/ Joint Director (Care Support and Treatment)/ Consultant (CST) at SACS.

Treatment Linkage to CoE

Patients from ART centres experiencing treatment failure with first-line ART or drug toxicity are referred to the CoE for further evaluation and second-line treatment/ Alternate first-line treatment as per the linkage plan.

Resources

• Scheme for Centres of Excellence in HIV Care, NACO, MoHFW, GoI, 2012.

Assessment