Shanna Livermore, BS¹, Jeffrey Bernstein, MS², Steven R. Truax, PhD¹, and Hong Chen, MA¹. (1) HIV Prevention Research and Evaluation Section, California Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS, 1616 Capitol Ave., Suite 616, Sacramento, CA 95814, (2) California Technical Assistance Program, UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, 74 New Montgomery, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 597-9210, JBERNSTEIN@desertaidsproject.org

Issues: Though a basic form of evaluation, process evaluation is necessary to steer the planning, implementation, and management of interventions toward their goals and objectives. Process data can tell you if you are actually providing the services you intended and to the populations you targeted. Often the facts do not align well with the theory and adjustments are necessary. A process evaluation system can provide ongoing opportunities for program improvement via feedback through structured data summaries. However, this crucial step is often forgotten or hastily thrown together in the rush towards more highly prized outcome evaluations.

Description: In July of 2001, the California State Office of AIDS (OA) implemented an innovative web-based process evaluation system for its HIV prevention providers. The goal of the Evaluating Local Interventions (ELI) system is to enable California’s HIV prevention providers to collect and access client-based information critical to tracking and evaluating their programs. ELI-generated reports indicate, as of January 22, 2004, there are 3,410 interventions defined with 1,015,226 client contacts recorded.

Lessons learned: ELI has provided valuable information on the status of HIV prevention interventions in California and resulted in formation of an Intervention Working Group. Additional intervention specialists have been hired to supplement the amount of technical assistance currently provided. ELI has been continually adjusted to more clearly represent reality in the data. The data is immediately available to providers.

Recommendations: Next steps include integration of ELI with other process evaluation mechanisms, advanced trainings, technical assistance, in-depth quality assurance analysis, and program enhancement.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Recognize the value and necessity of a process evaluation system.
• Describe common pitfalls in developing a web-based process evaluation system.
• Describe at least 3 ways data from a process evaluation system can be used to steer the planning, implementation, and management of HIV prevention interventions.

Keywords: Evaluation, HIV/AIDS

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.