Data to Care Hub
A companion to Data Points: A Health Department Roadmap for Enhancing Data to Care Programs
Data Points was intended to help health departments lay the foundation for a successful Data to Care (D2C) program. This updated resource is meant to complement Data Points and provides additional considerations to help health departments strengthen and expand their existing D2C programming. The topics covered in this website represent some common capacity building assistance (CBA) needs requested by health departments and expands upon the information presented in Data Points.
If your health department needs additional assistance for implementing a D2C program, NASTAD offers individualized technical assistance, including peer-to-peer learning opportunities. Learn More
The National D2C Context
Ending the Epidemic
D2C emerged in recent years as a powerful new HIV care and prevention tool with the potential to meaningfully impact the care continuum. As more jurisdictions continue to implement plans to “end the epidemic,” the use of surveillance data to identify and re-link individuals to care is a recurring theme in the key strategies used by health departments to achieve better health outcomes for people living with HIV (PLWH) and to prevent new infections.
HIV Care and Prevention Strategy
D2C is equally important as a prevention strategy as it is a care strategy. Ensuring that PLWH are engaged in quality HIV care improves outcomes for individuals living with HIV and prevents new infections. According to CDC, there is now clear scientific evidence that PLWH who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load (or stay virally suppressed) have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative sexual partners. In this new age of messages around “U=U” (Undetectable=Untransmittable) health departments and their partners have new opportunities to help impact HIV stigma and raise awareness of the benefits of engagement and retention in care among PLWH and in their communities.
“…there is now clear scientific evidence that PLWH who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load (or stay virally suppressed) have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative sexual partners.”
Health Department Expansion of D2C
D2C programs within health departments have rapidly evolved in the past several years. To track some of these trends, NASTAD gathered data from health departments about their D2C activities as part of its 2019 National HIV Prevention Inventory (NHPI) report. Overall, the results demonstrate rapid expansion of health department D2C programming and highlight common implementation challenges.
Some key findings include:
56% of health departments currently implementing D2C
All health departments that responded to the NHPI survey (n=55) reported having D2C activities either in the planning or implementation stages. Over half of health department programs were currently implementing D2C (56%, n=30), 26% were currently piloting programs (n=14) and 19% were planning to implement D2C (n=10).
67% of health departments scaled up d2c activities between 2015-2017
More than two-thirds of health departments (67%, n=37) reported scaling up their D2C activities between 2015-2017.
42% of jurisdictions have prevention funds allocated specifically to D2C
Forty-two percent of jurisdictions (n=21) had HIV prevention funds allocated specifically to D2C, using an average of 1% of their total HIV prevention funding for D2C activities. The percent of total HIV prevention funding allocated to D2C per health department ranged from 0-6% (this does not include Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program [RWHAP] or other non-prevention funding allocated to D2C programs).
63% of health departments listed staff capacity as a top challenge to implementing d2c
Health departments listed staff capacity (63%, n=27), difficulty locating individuals on not-in-care (NIC) lists (58%, n=25), completeness and/or timeliness of lab reporting (40%, n=17), and issues determining whether an individual moved out of the jurisdiction (40%, n=17) as their top challenges implementing D2C programs.
