Referral from ICTC to ART is an important link in the HIV prevention and treatment cascade. These linkages play a pivot role in the early initiation of ART in eligible PLHIV and provides an opportunity to screen other opportunistic infections specifically Tuberculosis. PPTCT is key intervention under NACP. It requires meticulous planning, sound implementation and robust monitoring and evaluation. Considering the current goal of elimination of Parent Child Transmission of HIV by 2020 robust monitoring of PPTCT services is required to generate the evidence based planning. It is necessary to strengthen the PPTCT information management system with added efforts in proper planning, implementation, supervision and monitoring & evaluation of PPTCT services

Purpose of development of PALS:

1. The PLHIV – ART Linkage System (PALS) is developed for tracking & monitoring of prevention and treatment service cascade provided to HIV positive individuals including pregnant women.
2. These services includes, HIV testing, linkages to treatment (ART centre), Diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB), STI/RTI infection and follow up of pregnant women for safe institutional delivery.
3.The system ensures the care continuum of HIV exposed infants / children under the Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) Programme.
4. It provides an opportunity to follow-up of the spouse/sexual partner of HIV positive individuals for HIV testing and further linkages to ART if found HIV positive
5. The system also enables the documentation of the services provided to HIV positive individuals at any ICTC / ART centre across India.

Unique features of PALS:

1.PALS is a web-based system running on Meghraj cloud server (GoI initiative under Digital India programme)
2.Role-based secure login access across geography and functions.
3.Two levels of System Administrators viz. National & State Admin.
4.Customized Dashboard at all levels of users viz. ICTC / ART / DAPCU / DNO / SACS / NACO.
5.Auto generated work-plans for service delivery.
6.Unique 23-digit Person Identification Digit (PID) for tracking the services for an individual
7.Various MIS reports include Individual case management and analytical summary report at all level

Advantages of PALS:
⦁ Individual Case Reporting and Monitoring- Helps for timely service delivery & monitoring of HIV positive individual by concerned service providers.
⦁ Planning of activities- Monthly activities of field worker can be planned according to the community needs.
⦁ Need assessment- Assessment of service delivery needs.
⦁ Data aggregation- Aggregate individual case data to avoid duplication of data.
⦁ Improvement in data quality- Will improve quality of data through data validation checks.
⦁ Performance analysis – Will help in the monitoring and performance analysis services provided.