AIDSPLAN is a DSS resource that allows health care workers in Great Britain to plan resources for HIV/AIDS-related services better.  The system explicitly encourages decision makers to focus on “what-if” questions so they can creatively experiment with strategies that might prove useful in meeting the needs of this increasing care-needing group.  The DSS can be used to explore the consequences of alternative strategies or investments in resources, as well as the sensitivity of those consequences to particular assumptions about uncontrollable and unpredictable factors.  This, in turn, allows decision makers to examine the impacts of the decisions in terms of likely overload, need for further resources, and of flexibility to meet future uncertainties.

Forecasts of demand within particular localities are derived from the COX National Forecasts by patient categories.  Decision makers can elect whether to examine these forecasts at their low, medium or high range.  This projection of patient demand, in turn, forms the basis for experimentation with care options.  Costs of care options by patient category are used to estimate the costs and resources required to treat the projected patient demand. 

The model's analysis is based on a division of patients into categories that, for planning purposes, can be considered relatively homogeneous in their demand for services.  Criteria that can be used to classify patients include clinical state, possible drug abuse, age, dependency, housing situation and the presence or absence of informal support at home.

For each category, the health authority needs to identify alternative care options.  A care option is a costed combination of service inputs that constitutes a clinically acceptable method of treating or supporting a member of the client group.  It is defined in terms of the basic resources needed to supply appropriate care and treatment.  Model users can adopt the list of resources provided with AIDSPLAN or change it to suit their special concerns or circumstances.  Up to 32 different resources can be accommodated in the model.  Once users have established such lists of resources, they can express any given care option as a particular combination of recourses from the list in specified amounts. 

For any particular assumptions made about future demand, AIDSPLAN computes the resources and cost consequences of the identified care strategy.  Using a menu, the user can display summaries of the results at different levels to see the effect of the input assumptions and to identify where further analyses may be needed.   In fact, medical personnel currently are using AIDSPLAN to facilitate discussion of the consequences for services of using AZT prophylactically and the impact of day care facilities on the provision of inpatient beds.