
Funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) the IeDEA initiative established regional centers for the collection and harmonization of data in North America, Caribbean and Central and South America, Asia and Australia, West Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa, thus creating an international research consortium. The IeDEA consortium addresses unique and evolving research questions in HIV/AIDS that are unanswerable by single cohorts. IeDEA develops and implements methodology to effectively pool the collected data, thus providing a cost effective means of generating large data sets to address high priority research questions. Combination of data collected under various protocols tends to be difficult and not as efficient as the collection of pre-determined and standardized data elements. By developing a pro-active mechanism for the collection of key variables, IeDEA enhances the quality, cost effectiveness and speed of HIV/AIDS research.
The main criterion for clinics to participate in the IeDEA-SA Collaboration is that a clinic treats people with HIV, and prospectively and electronically collects clinical data.

ART-LINC Collaboration: Electronic Medical Records, Data Quality and Losses to Follow Up: Survey of Antiretroviral Treatment Programmes in Resource Limited Settings. In WHO Bulletin
Brinkhof, MWG and Egger, M: Reply to Colebunders and Caluwaerts. Clin Infect Dis. 2008 May 1;46(9):1482-1483. Full text
Determination of the Incidence of Tuberculosis in Low-Income Countries.