Cooperative Information Sharing, Evaluation, and Management Model for 27 HIV Service Projects: First Year Results. G Huba, T Larson, K Marconi, L Melchior, V Brown, C Thompson, L Wolfe, J Steinberg, R Swift, T Gallagher, E Jean-Louis, R Henderson, M Driscoll, P Chase, G Falus, J Bartlett, A Stanton, L Anderson, L Thomas, H Cruz, S McDonald, J Rips, D Anderson, H Henderson, V German, C Grace, K Uldall, D Cherin, K Meredith, G Smereck. Steering Committee.

Issue: HIV service models are often developed by single sites and use unique evaluation methods that do not permit easy cross-project comparisons or pooled findings. An alternate model is presented in this paper.

Project: In 1994, the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded an HIV Innovative Model of Care Initiative consisting of 27 cooperative agreements, HRSA, and an Evaluation and Dissemination Center. Projects participate in the Steering Committee for the cooperative agreements as a condition of funding. The cooperative agreement funding mechanism was chosen to promote joint decision making, common evaluation, and pooling of technical expertise. Projects clustered into five Work Groups based on similarities in methods, outcomes, and/or processes: a) capitated care: b) community based organizations; c) comprehensive continuum models; d) infrastructure-advocacy; and e) training.

Results: The SPNS Cooperative Agreement Steering Committee met five times in 15 months and held a national evaluation conference. More than 200 conference calls have been held, 82 common evaluation modules have been developed, 5 cross-cutting evaluation designs have evolved, and hundreds of technical support documents have been shared. A dynamic management structure has evolved using consensus decision making, feedback, and refinement. Through sharing of technical expertise and experiences, both cooperative and individual goals have been enhanced. The participants believe that the model can be transferred to other HIV service projects that wish to pool their strengths.

Lessons Learned: A complex management structure evolved to meet the needs of diverse innovative HIV care models. This structure promotes the exchange of information, technical expertise, and evaluation methods and has implications for other nationally-funded HIV service programs.

Contact: George J Huba, Ph.D., The Measurement Group, 5811A Uplander Way, Culver City, CA 90230, USA. Telephone: 310.216.1051, Fax: 310.670.7735, email: ghuba@TheMeasurementGroup.com.

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