Do we have the reliable data? An exploration of data quality for AIDS information system in China.

A national AIDS program evaluation system has been applied to the ranking of the performance of involved public health organizations in China since 2007. The system provides quantitative performance comparison information based on automatic mining of the data stored in a unified web-based national information system, China AIDS Comprehensive Response Information Management System (the CRIMS). Hence, the quality of the AIDS program evaluation system is directly related to the data quality in the CRIMS. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the AIDS program evaluation system. The research method is qualitative interview of public health practitioners in Jiangxi Province. The public health practitioners believed that the introduction and ongoing usage of the CRIMS has significantly transformed the practice of AIDS prevention and control. They believed that the AIDS program evaluation system has brought in increased accountability of public health. They suggested that the accuracy and completeness of AIDS program evaluation needs to go beyond the data from the CRIMS. Further research will continue to identify the unknown factors that undermine the performance of AIDS programs in China.