Case Study: Ontario HIV Treatment Network achieves faster, more accurate HIV data collection with ObjectSharp

Ontario HIV Treatment Network speeds secure patient data collection from weeks to minutes with ObjectSharp

The Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) faced a significant challenge in collecting anonymized patient data from 20 different treatment sites across the province. Their manual process, which involved physically visiting each site to transfer data via USB keys, was slow, expensive, and prone to inaccuracies, including duplicate patient records. ObjectSharp was engaged to develop a modern solution using Microsoft Azure services to overcome these obstacles.

ObjectSharp designed and built a secure Azure portal that automated data collection and transfer. They implemented a system using Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) and double encryption, allowing sites to only access their own data while enabling OHTN to quickly generate consolidated, anonymized datasets for researchers. A key innovation was a clever algorithm that automatically identifies and merges duplicate patient records from different sites. This solution eliminated the need for manual data collection, significantly improved data accuracy, and provided OHTN researchers with faster access to reliable, long-term patient data.

Ontario HIV Treatment Network