Expert Patient Study
Through this research study, commissioned under a Health Care Improvement (HCI) project task order, Initiatives is examining the “expert patient” role in Uganda and exploring the concept of task shifting to expert patients as a potential means of addressing the shortages of health workers in countries that face a high HIV burden. “Expert patients” are described as individuals who are well enough educated about their own chronic disease (i.e. diabetes or heart disease) that they can provide support to others with the same disease.
According to the World Health Organization, the adoption or expansion of a task-shifting approach (rational redistribution of tasks from highly qualified health workers to those with less training and fewer qualifications) is one method of strengthening and expanding the health workforce to rapidly increase access to HIV and other health services. Given the shortage of health workers in Uganda and other countries, shifting tasks that do not require clinical skills to other cadres may help remove client-flow bottlenecks by making more efficient use of available human resources.
Our research team is examining current policies, practices, and perceptions of the expert patient role at six HCI-supported sites in Uganda. Their goal is to document the concept of task shifting to “expert patients” and provide a basis for scaling up activities that support task shifting. Working in sites that already use expert patients in this way will help us understand what has already worked and where opportunities for improvement exist.
Our findings will help inform how refine and implement human resource policies and processes that support effective and consistent inclusion of expert patients into facilities providing HIV/AIDS services. The findings will be used to develop a case study on how expert patients are used in HIV/AIDS care in Uganda, and feed into larger studies evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the use of expert patients.
Project: Task Shifting and the Expert Patient’s Role
Funder: USAID
Prime: University Research Co., LLC (URC)
Dates: 2010-2011
Website: www.hciproject.org