FRAC0104 | Leveraging digital technologies to improve cervical cancer screening and management amongst women living with HIV in Eastern Uganda

Peter Mikago¹, Emma Welikhe¹, Byron Aguma¹, Hillary Alima¹, Johnson Masiko¹, Samuel Sepit¹, Mina Sali² | ¹Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau, Kampala, Uganda; ²Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda

The Uganda HIV Care and treatment guidelines 2022 recommend cervical cancer screening for women living with HIV. The Local service Delivery for HIV AIDS activity (LSDA) is a USAID funded project implemented by Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) and supports 198 facilities in the country, 72 of which are Anti-retroviral Therapy sites in Eastern region. By January 2024, the Eastern region had screened achieved only seven hundred twenty-three (723) 15% of the eligible women targeted for the year. We noted sub-optimal use of cervical cancer screening and management data by the facility focal persons, knowledge gaps among service providers and some myths and misconceptions among clients. A regional WhatsApp group named “LSDA CX CA updates” was formed comprising Ministry of Health National Cercical cancer clinic mentors, all facility data teams, cervical cancer focal per- sons, health unit in-charges and project technical staffs. The regional Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist shared the baseline performance and requested facility teams to verify and own the performance thereafter weekly performance summaries were shared and facilities were required to share enablers or chal- lenges for optimal and sub-optimal trends accordingly. Brief case discussions were also conducted in the WhatsApp group. Best performers were recognized while sub-optimal performing sites were prioritized for focused hands-on mentorships. The project regional cervical cancer performance improved from 15% as of January 2024 to 91% by September 2024. 4820 Women living with HIV were screened for cervical cancer which translated to 91% of the target achievement. Two hundred thirty-six (236) were diagnosed with pre-cancerous lesions of whom 225 were successfully treated at the various facilities. Five cases were referred to the National referral Hospital.
1. There is need to adopt small virtual technical working groups that embrace data use in order to improve service delivery among different thematic areas.
2. Health providers should adopt Social media platforms like WhatsApp used daily to enable real time feedback, capacity building and virtual support among peers.
3. There is need to Consistently share Weekly data summaries in order to improve timely correction of program data and lead to progressive program improvement.