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Human Immunodeficiency VirusCASCADENCT06604663

Data Science and Qualitative Research for Decision Support in the HIV Care Cascade

A study testing Activation of the CDSS system in people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Treatment Adherence, run by Brown University at 1 site in Kenya.

Enrolling by invitation

Enrolling by invitation. The study team selects and invites participants, usually from an existing group of patients.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

The goal of this study is to determine whether clinical prediction algorithms derived using statistical machine learning methods can be used to improve patient outcomes in large HIV care programs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. There are two main questions to be answered. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 100 years
What is being tested?
Activation of the CDSS system
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
80,000 participants
Where
1 siteKenya
Study dates
20 May 2024to 31 Oct 2026
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 to 100 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • The study will include adult patients (age 18 and over) receiving HIV care through the AMPATH program in Eldoret, Kenya. There is not a patient-level enrollment process. The primary endpoints will be summarized at the clinic level (e.g., proportion of patients who keep an appointment within 7 days of the scheduled appointment).

Who cannot join

  • None

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

Kenya1 site
  • AMPATH

    Eldoret

Other trials in Kenya

About this study

Official title: Data Science for Decision Support in the HIV Care Cascade

The goal of this study is to determine whether clinical prediction algorithms derived using statistical machine learning methods can be used to improve patient outcomes in large HIV care programs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

There are two main questions to be answered. First, can the prediction algorithms accurately identify those who are at risk for (a) missing scheduled clinic visits and/or (b) treatment failure, evidenced by elevated HIV viral load? And second, can the risk predictions be used in a structured way to (a) improve retention in care and/or (b) reduce the number of patients having elevated viral load? Researchers will develop machine learning prediction algorithms, incorporate the risk prediction information into the electronic health record, provide guidance to clinical health workers on use of the point-of-care interface tools that display risk prediction information, and incorporate feedback from clinic staff to modify and co-develop the protocol for using risk predictions for improving patient outcomes.

They will then compare the proportion of patients having missed visits and longer-term loss to follow up, and the proportion with elevated viral load, between clinics that use the information from the risk prediction algorithms and those that do not.

Read the detailed description

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) tailored to the requirements of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have been shown to improve compliance with guidelines and quality of care by a range of healthcare staff. To be most effective CDSS should be developed and tested with large clinical data sets from the local region. Use of machine learning algorithms allows the development of prediction models for clinical complications and outcomes, which can guide health care staff in early identification of problems and appropriate interventions. This requires well established electronic health record (EHR) systems acting as both data sources and as platforms for delivering feedback through CDSS (Learning Health System approach). The EHR at the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), a large HIV care program in western Kenya funded in large part by President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has used a version of the OpenMRS EHR for nearly two decades and provides a unique environment for this research.

The objective of this proposal is to develop and implement data-driven tools to aid health-related decision-making at patient, clinic and county levels, and evaluate the efficacy of using these methods. The hypothesis is that health facilities utilizing these data driven CDSS will show improvements in the processes and outcomes of care compared to health facilities not utilizing data driven CDSS within their EHRs.

The two primary endpoints for the study are retention in care and viral load suppression.

The motivation is driven by 95-95-95 HIV cascade of care benchmarks established by UNAIDS for eradicating HIV worldwide. In brief, the framework calls for diagnosis of 95% of individuals who have HIV, initiating antiretroviral (ART) treatment for 95% of those who have been diagnosed, and achieving suppression of viral load (VL) for 95% of those who are on treatment. Our project addresses the second and third phases.

Regarding the second 95, retention is a necessary condition for maintaining persons living with HIV (PLWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) because global care guidelines now specify that all PLWH initiate ART once engaged in care. Regarding the third 95, in Kenya and many other LMIC, viral load testing for most adult clients is done six months after treatment initiation and annually thereafter. Even after a measured VL indicating suppression, viral failure due to nonadherence or drug resistance can occur well before the next follow up one year later. Hence our models will generate predicted viral load values in the interim and use them to flag individuals who should have a VL measurement prior to the scheduled follow up.

The trial is part of a larger NIH-funded study. The aims related to the trial are as follows:

Aim 1: Develop and validate statistical machine learning models and algorithms for clinical and programmatic decision support.

1a: Develop and validate statistical machine learning algorithms to identify those at high risk for disengagement from care and viral failure, and to generate predicted values of current viral load.

  1. b: Develop representations of statistical uncertainty about the predictions to enable optimal decision making. Aim 2. Develop, implement and field test decision support and data visualization tools to enhance data driven decision making by physicians and program managers.
  2. a: Create the server architecture to support the prediction models in the OpenMRS user interface (UI).

2b: Develop and refine the specific protocol for using the risk predictions to reduce missed visits and reduce incidence of viral load failure.

Aim 3: Conduct evaluation of the impact and efficacy of the clinical decision support tools in the AMPATH Care Program

3a: Implement the CDSS at the point of care in all clinics using the AMPATH Medical Records System (AMRS) in Uzima and Dumisha catchment areas. These clinics have varying size and geographic location.

3b: Following a pilot phase, conduct a stepped wedge randomized longitudinal comparison of retention rates and viral load suppression rates in 30 clinics at AMPATH

The successful completion of the work will provide effective CDSS tools to improve HIV care in Kenya and other LMICs, as well as a set of tools for the development, updating and evaluation of CDSS for other clinical problems. Previous work by the investigators and colleagues in development and wide deployment OpenMRS in more than 44 countries provides a platform for broad dissemination of this work.

Being tested
Activation of the CDSS system
Keywords
Electronic Medical Records, Clinical Decision Support System, Machine Learning, HIV Treatment Interruption, HIV Treatment Failure, Artificial Intelligence, Electronic Health Records, Bayesian statistics, Clinical prediction models
Medical subject headings
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Treatment Adherence and Compliance, Patient Compliance, No-Show Patients, Patient Participation, Patient Dropouts

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Activation of the CDSS systemBehavioural

    Activation of the CDSS system, whereby outreach workers and clinicians have access to and ability to act upon lists of patients who are at highest risk of missing their upcoming clinical appointment.

Study groups in NCT06604663
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Usual CareNo interventionUsual Care at AMPATH involves telephoning clients or care supporters the day prior to their appointment (at some clinics) and/or telephoning or making a home visits after appointments are missed. This will be in place at usual care clinics until the date at which the clinic is randomized to receive the CDSS support.
Clinical decision support, CDSSExperimentalWhen a clinic is assigned to receive the CDSS support intervention two components will be enacted to enable proactive outreach that prevents a missed visit. These patients are considered to be in the active, experimental arm. Please seem the section above on Detailed Description for background and details on how this intervention is implemented.
Receives: Behavioral: Activation of the CDSS system

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. The proportion of scheduled patient visits kept by the patient (1-day)

    The proportion of scheduled patient visits where the patient returns on or before the scheduled visit date. Measured weekly at the clinic level.

    Measured: The study has 6 waves (or wedges in the stepped-wedge design). The proportion will be measured weekly for the 4 weeks preceding the first wave of CDSS implementation, and then weekly until 8 weeks after the date of the final wave of CDSS implementation.

  2. The proportion of scheduled patient visits kept by the patient (7-day)

    The proportion of scheduled patient visits where the patient returns on or before the 7th day following the scheduled visit date. Measured weekly at the clinic level.

    Measured: The study has 6 waves (or wedges in the stepped-wedge design). The proportion will be measured weekly for the 4 weeks preceding the first wave of CDSS implementation, and then weekly until 8 weeks after the date of the final wave of CDSS implementation.

  3. The proportion of patients with suppressed VL among those with measured VL

    The proportion of patients with suppressed VL among those with measured VL. This outcome reflects the fraction suppressed only among those who show up for their VL measurement and is the metric designed for tracking progress toward 95-95-95 goals. This endpoint will be measured monthly at the clinic level. The denominator will be number of patient-level VL measures, and the numerator will be number of occasions where the measured VL is undetectable.

    Measured: The study has 6 waves (or wedges in the stepped-wedge design). The proportion will be measured for the month preceding the first wave of CDSS implementation, and then monthly until 2 months after the date of the final wave of CDSS implementation.

  4. The proportion of patients with suppressed VL among those with scheduled VL measurement, whether or not that measure was taken.

    The proportion of patients with suppressed VL among those with scheduled VL measurement, whether or not that measure was taken. This outcome is designed to reflect the fraction of the overall patient population having suppressed VL and is potentially more relevant as a population-level parameter. This endpoint will be measured monthly at the clinic level. The denominator will be number of VL measurements scheduled, and the numerator will be number of occasions where the VL is measured and is undetectable.

    Measured: The study has 6 waves (or wedges in the stepped-wedge design). The proportion will be measured for the month preceding the first wave of CDSS implementation, and then monthly until 2 months after the date of the final wave of CDSS implementation.

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted19 Sep 2024
  2. Study start20 May 2024
  3. Primary completion31 Jan 2026 (estimated)
  4. Study completion31 Oct 2026 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Model description
The investigators will evaluate the intervention using a stepped-wedge design whereby clinics are assigned the intervention in sequential order, and in batches. Specifically, the investigators will implement the decision support tool at 5 or 6 clinics per month over a period of 6 months. By the end of 6 months, all clinics will be receiving the decision support tool. There may be some variation in the allocation, owing to readiness of individual clinics to begin using the decision support tools. To ensure balance in allocation, randomization will be stratified by geographic location, clinic size and pre-intervention appointment default rate.
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
80,000 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT06604663
Sponsor's protocol ID
2022003414
Other IDs
R01AI167694
Acronym
CASCADE
Status last verified
Sep 2025
First submitted
9 Sep 2024
Last updated
12 Jan 2026
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Activation of the CDSS system in people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Treatment Adherence, run by Brown University at 1 site in Kenya.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: enrolling by invitation, as of the sponsor's last update on 12 Jan 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Kenya. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

The proportion of scheduled patient visits kept by the patient (1-day) (time frame: The study has 6 waves (or wedges in the stepped-wedge design). The proportion will be measured weekly for the 4 weeks preceding the first wave of CDSS implementation, and then weekly until 8 weeks after the date of the final wave of CDSS implementation.). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 12 Jan 2026.

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CASCADE Clinical Trial NCT06604663 | AzTrials