$6.4 Million for Study of Home Treatment for People with HIV/AIDS

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program of the University of California announced November 29 that it has awarded grants totaling $6.4 million to five California health care provider organizations to study a key new model of health care delivery designed to improve the quality of care and reduce costs for people with HIV/AIDS.

The grantees will assess Patient-Centered Medical Home models of care over the next three years. PCMH does not refer to a house or facility, rather it is a community-based system of care, treatment, prevention and support services that provides coordinated, high quality, client-centered services.

The Obama Administration identified PCMH as a key element in the 2010 National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States, and PCMH has been cited often in federal and private sector health care reform discussions as having the potential to result in more effective and efficient health care delivery, especially for those with chronic diseases.

This will be the first PCMH research project in the United States focused on people with HIV/AIDS.

“This research can provide tremendous value to HIV care providers, policymakers, and health care system planners in California and throughout the U.S.,” said George Lemp, Dr.P.H., director of the UC-based CHRP. “The studies will have significant implications in the design and delivery of care to persons with HIV and other chronic diseases.”

In announcing the awards, Dr. Lemp said that, “a collaborative approach to applied health care research is needed to guide the implementation of health care reform, which holds the promise of higher quality care combined with cost containment.”

The five grantees for this project are:

· The Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Programs and Policy in collaboration with the Rand Schrader Clinic at the University of Southern California Medical Center.

· The San Francisco Department of Public Health in collaboration with the UC San Francisco (UCSF) Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital, and 360: The Positive Care Center at UCSF. This project will exclusively focus on people living with HIV/AIDS age 50 and over.

· St. Mary Medical Center Foundation in Long Beach.

· Tri-City Health Center (Alameda County) in a consortium with AIDS Project East Bay, Alameda County Health Center, Asian Health Services, La Clinica de La Raza, and LifeLong Medical Center

· UC San Diego.

Collectively, these organizations provide medical and social services for more than 8 percent of Californians reported to be living with HIV/AIDS. The percentages among African Americans, Latinos and women are 9.8, 9.9 and 11.7 percent, respectively. In addition, CHRP estimates that over 25 percent of people in California with HIV/AIDS age 50 and over are served by these five organizations.

The grantees will test a number of strategies through their PCMH models. Examples include:

· Improving health outcomes by establishing electronic information exchange within multidisciplinary care teams and among providers of specialty and support services.

· Using innovative encounters (telephone, texting, and e-visits) to improve communication between patients and providers.

· Testing new models of integrated HIV and aging care services to address the complex needs of persons 50 years and older living with HIV.

· Creating a web-based portal to give home health nurses mobile access to electronic health records while working with homebound patients in the field.

· Piloting a new messaging portal for local HIV testing sites to alert the HIV clinic when a new HIV-positive client has been identified and referred to the agency.

· Piloting a computerized pharmacy electronic interface that allows the clinic to ascertain when a prescription has not been filled.

The grantees will evaluate the impact of their models and strategies through a collaborative research effort, coordinated by the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF.

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program provides state funding for merit-reviewed HIV-related research conducted at nonprofit research institutions and community-based organizations throughout California. The program has awarded more than 2,000 research grants to more than 50 California institutions since 1983. CHRP provides start-up funds for the development of cutting edge research by investigators based in California, providing critical leverage in competing for and bringing subsequent federal and private resources to the state. A 2006 survey of California investigators found that more than $5 in federal and other grant support was generated for every dollar invested by CHRP in California-based research.

For more information about the California HIV/AIDS Research Program, please visit online.