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Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means it's official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 

    The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP) is a project started to improve HIV care in the United States. It aims to raise patient connection and decrease inequalities in people living with HIV in the United States (U.S.). MMP is a multi-state project with oversight provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It learns about people with HIV and the services they use and need through a survey. It asks about habits, health care quality, and problems getting medical care. MMP is a partnership between state or local health departments and the CDC. We randomly choose patients and collect information from interviews and medical records.

    The project covers 23 cities and states across the U.S. It helps guide policy and funding choices. It reveals what people need help with and their struggles getting medical care or other services. As a thank you, all participants receive a gift card for their time.

    Two hundred people are picked at random from HIV records in Pennsylvania every year. People who live in other states or have died are not eligible to participate. To protect privacy, we don’t use names. Instead, participants are given a unique number.

    Participants may be contacted in a few different ways. Staff may reach out using phone calls, voicemails, texts, mail, and emails. Staff may also contact your health care providers or case workers to connect with you. Letters and postcards are sent to participants throughout the year and often change based on the season. An example of a seasonal mailing is shown below.

    An example of a seasonal mailing
    An example of a seasonal mailing

    All people who take part in MMP are asked the same questions from the CDC. The interview takes about 45 minutes to finish. Staff use the answers to learn about the quality of life for people with HIV. We find out what people need and help connect them to local services. Most interviews are done over the phone, but it can be done in person if the participant wants. Supervisors listen in on some interviews to evaluate staff. If you do not want to allow this, you can say no to the request.

    A second part of the project involves looking at medical records for the past two years for those who take part. We look at things like lab tests, your medicines, how often you see a doctor, and if you’ve stayed in the hospital overnight. We use this to measure the quality of care each person gets. We don’t report anything that can identify you.  Only your unique number is used on the information we collect.

    MMP is a project that aims to understand the experiences and needs of people with HIV. This is used to help improve your medical care. It collects information on health and life issues. This helps us understand what we can do to try to improve life for everyone with HIV. Not everyone with HIV can be part of MMP, but we try to represent all people with HIV in Pennsylvania. We share our conclusions with doctors and state government leaders. We also talk about inequalities in care and services, and we try to close those gaps. The same thing happens at the federal level using the data from all states.

    Your privacy is important to the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH). All staff take a class every year about privacy and how to keep information safe. This keeps us up-to-date and following the laws. Access to your data is limited to only those who need it. We are required to tell the CDC how many people have certain diseases. However, they do not receive any information that could identify you. We give your information a unique code number, and your answers are only shared using that number. We won’t share or record anything that could identify you. We don’t share any of your answers with your doctor either.

    All PA DOH and CDC staff must follow HIPAA and other federal privacy laws. This means we can’t share your information with anyone else. Any paper material is kept behind at least two locks, such as a locked file cabinet in a locked room. Only people who need access to this cabinet can get into it. If you’re worried about privacy, feel free to ask questions at any time. We want you to be comfortable and know that your information is safe.

    The survey is optional, and you do not have to answer every question. If you want to skip one question, just let us know, and we will move on.