Identification of the necessary data elements to report AIDS: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: The main focus of the surveillance system of AIDS in Iran is on direct clinical care for HIV, and other supportive facilities and secondary programmes have been somewhat neglected. Creating templates for reporting AIDS in Iran that can fulfil the needs of all information stakeholders, is a necessity for the Public Health Information Exchange (PHIE) system. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive reporting template of the PHIE system for HIV/AIDS in Iran. METHODS: This study was performed in 2017. Through a systematic review of the Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed databases and Google Scholar search engine from 2000 to 2016, the necessary data elements are identified by the main keywords of the “Minimum Data Set” and HIV / AIDS collection. RESULTS: As many as 28 studies were enrolled in the research. The MDS was designed for the following categories: 1) administrative, managerial, and policy-makers (with 10 data classes and 90 data elements), 2) Clinical and medical (six data classes and 83 data elements), and 3) support services, counselling and subsidiary (three data classes and 32 data elements). CONCLUSION: Iran stands in a fortunate position in terms of clinical and care programmes for AIDS treatment. A fundamental challenge is the insufficient attention to support and consulting programmes as well as the lack of information for accurate and efficient policy and decision-making. A reporting format has been designed to meet the needs of all information requirements of beneficiaries related to HIV/AIDS care and management.