The findings suggest that HIV healthcare providers need to identify and respond to psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of distress in conjunction with ensuring the excellent management of pain and other symptoms. Patient problems are interrelated, therefore assessment and treatment should be in line with a person-centred, holistic paliative care approach that reflects patients’ self-reported needs. This kind of #find more keyword# approach to care is likely to result in better health outcomes in this population. Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions LS conceived of and conducted data analysis and wrote the paper. VS and PS helped design the study, managed data collection, contributed to data Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical analysis and commented on the paper. RP, FMP and JD helped design the study, oversaw data collection, contributed to data analysis

and commented on the paper. GM and NG collected the data, contributed to analysis and commented on the paper. RH and IJH conceived of the study, obtained funding, managed the study and contributed to the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/12/35/prepub Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Acknowledgements Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical We are grateful to the United States Agency for International Development for funding this study under a sub-agreement GPO-A-00-03-00003-00, made under the authority provided to the University of North Carolina. The present study benefited from the participation of a wide range of partners, medical professionals, HIV specialists and palliative care researchers. The authors are grateful for the guidance provided by the United States Government Palliative Care Technical Working Group and to the Kenyan and Ugandan Country Teams. Finally, we are grateful to the patients, family carers and

staff at the participating facilities.
The need for palliative care Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in sub-Saharan Africa is staggering: this region shoulders over 67% of the global burden of HIV/AIDS and cancer. However, provisions for these essential services remain limited and poorly integrated with national health systems in most nations. Moreover, the evidence base for palliative Rutecarpine care in the region remains scarce. This study chronicles the development and evaluation of DataPall, an open-source electronic medical records system that can be used to track patients, manage data, and generate reports for palliative care providers in these settings. DataPall was developed using design criteria encompassing both functional and technical objectives articulated by hospital leaders and palliative care staff at a leading palliative care center in Malawi.