How CHIPS Work
Reporting to the NSHPC and CHIPS
All children born to HIV-positive women, and children diagnosed with HIV infection at any age, should initially be reported to the NSHPC* through the established maternity and paediatric surveillance run by the team at the Institute of Child Health, as part of Public Health England’s Infectious Diseases in Pregnancy Screening Programme. If a child's HIV infection is confirmed and they are being cared for at a centre participating in CHIPS, the NSHPC transfers demographic and perinatal data to the CHIPS database. For each newly reported child, CHIPS collects additional baseline data held at the hospital at the time of entry into the study, and prospective follow up data annually thereafter. The NSHPC and the MRC Clinical Trials Unit work closely together to avoid making duplicate requests for information, and double reporting from clinicians is not required. Initial reports and confirmation of infection status go to the NSHPC; follow up of infected children is then conducted through CHIPS, and summary surveillance data are transferred back to the NSHPC. Furthermore, for children who are enrolled in PENTA trials, less information is required for CHIPS as data such as laboratory results and ART are obtained on the trial forms which are subsequently merged onto the CHIPS database, minimising duplication.
*further details available from NSHPC - click here to email.
Data collected by CHIPS
The following clinical, laboratory and treatment data are collected annually on each child:
- Clinical events and CDC stage B and C
- Growth parameters and puberty status
- Hospital admissions, diagnoses and treatment
- Attendance at HIV and other outpatient clinics
- AIDS-defining and major but non-AIDS-defining illnesses
- Lipodystrophy and puberty development
- Co-infection with hepatitis B and/ or hepatitis C
- Results of T cell subsets and HIV RNA viral load tests
- Antiretroviral therapy - including doses prescribed, start and stop dates, reasons for change, and serious adverse events
- Requests for resistance testing
Click links to view related forms:
Follow-Up Form
Follow up form Completion Guideline
Baseline Form
Baseline form Completion Guideline
CHIPS appendix
Continuation form
Death form
CHIPS feedback to participating clinics
Annual feedback of CHIPS data to participating clinics facilitates auditing of clinical practice within clincs and regional and national networks. This in turn supports the aim to provide a consistent standard of care for all HIV infected children throughout the UK and Ireland.
Each clinic receives feedback data from CHIPS on an annual basis. This includes a summary of demographic characteristics, clinical measures and antiretroviral therapy use for the children cared for at that clinic, as well as for the respective CHINN network, and the UK and Ireland as a whole. In addition each clinic receives a spreadsheet containing summary variables for individual children seen at the clinic. Summary data are also used for commissioning purposes.
Results are based on information reported to CHIPS, and so if a centre feels that their workload is not accurately represented, they are able to inform CHIPS of any discrepancies. Feedback is sent in the form of PowerPoint slides for clinics with 25 or more children, which are ready for presentation to interested bodies such as trust managers and commissioners. For clinics with less than 25 children, feedback is sent in the form of text documents.