BACKGROUND: HIV positive persons living in South Carolina and Georgia often cross the state border for their medical care. Since laboratories report results to the state/facility where the blood was drawn, the state in which the infected person lives is not aware of these reports. With an increased focus on ensuring HIV infected individuals are virally suppressed, having the latest laboratory results is vital in order to ensure accurate data, and drive data to care efforts.
METHODS: South Carolina and Georgia developed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to facilitate sharing of laboratory data for HIV positive persons having their lab work done in the bordering state. Each state ran SAS code to abstract data from the electronic HIV AIDs Reporting System (eHARS) and submitted data via secure portal.
RESULTS: South Carolina sent 29,665 lab reports, representing 1,608 unique cases to GA; SC received 33,433 lab reports, representing 1,820 unique cases. Approximately 30,000 lab records sent to GA were for previously known cases and there were 213 cases identified that SC was previously unaware of. Approximately 100 cases had their status updated from HIV to AIDS, vital status of 13 cases was updated, and 71 cases were updated with transmission risk. Two counties that share a border with GA saw the percent of cases that appeared out-of-care drop from 68 and 80 percent to 41 and 62 percent respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Preparing for entering a data sharing agreement with another state by having discussions with your legal staff as well as with your prevention services staff will greatly enhance the process. Sharing HIV laboratory data between bordering states can be a useful tool for ensuring that your state data is more accurate, and hopefully, lead to more virally suppressed people living with HIV/AIDS