Webinar 1 — Moving Patients Along the HIV Care Continuum and Beyond

September 8, 2016

Review of two evidence-informed HIV care model interventions implemented in Ohio and Wisconsin, across two Care Continuum stages.

This webinar is the first in a series titled Moving Patients Along the HIV Care Continuum and Beyond, by HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau, Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Integrating HIV Innovative Practices (IHIP) Project. The series features successful HRSA SPNS grantees sharing evidence-informed care model interventions, lessons learned, replication tips, and stories from the field for others looking to implement similar interventions in their clinic or community.

This webinar series aimed to:

Inform Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program providers and other service providers about SPNS intervention models
Identify steps for replicating featured Care Continuum intervention models in HIV care and ancillary service settings
Discuss challenges and other lessons learned in incorporating evidence-informed models into routine practice

Featured Presenters and Interventions

Social Networks Testing Initiative

Wisconsin Department of Health Services
Presenter: Jacob Dougherty, BA

Jacob Dougherty currently works as an HIV Prevention Program Coordinator for the State of Wisconsin AIDS/HIV Program, where he provides training and technical assistance to local health departments and grant-funded agencies throughout the state. Prior to this, he spent four years working as a Data and Compliance Manager for HIV Prevention Programming at Diverse and Resilient, Inc., a public health nonprofit agency focused on addressing LGBT health disparities in Wisconsin. He has served on local, statewide, and national workgroups to develop best practices, protocols, and tools to improve HIV testing outcomes.

Dougherty discussed the Social Networks Testing Initiative that leveraged existing social networks to find high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) and reach persons unaware of their HIV status, provide them HIV counseling and testing, and link newly diagnosed clients to a Linkage to Care Specialist who provided intensive services and patient navigation to ensure active linkage and engagement into care post-diagnosis.

Assess, Test, Link: Achieving Success (ATLAS) Program

Care Alliance Health Center (Ohio)
Presenter: Anne Avery, MD

Dr. Ann Avery is an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University and a practicing infectious disease physician at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. She focuses on improving the lives of patients with or at risk for HIV utilizing a holistic approach of biomedical, social, and structural interventions. She has implemented novel multi-level ways to engage marginalized populations into the HIV Care Continuum, including the integration of HIV testing in a variety of settings, including jails. She is the principal investigator for two ongoing SPNS initiatives and one HRSA-funded dissemination of evidence-based interventions project.

Dr. Avery discussed the Assess, Test, Link: Achieving Success (ATLAS) Program that implemented a jail-based HIV testing and linkage case management program, identified HIV-positive jail-based clients, and linked HIV-positive clients to medical care and services upon release to the community.