DKBmed Announces Partnership with University of Kentucky to Create HIV Quality Improvement Program

MANHATTAN, N.Y. - Jan. 10, 2020 - PRLog -- DKBmed, LLC, the University of Kentucky (UK) HealthCare CECentral, and Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) have partnered to create a new quality improvement (QI) program designed to improve HIV screening, management, and patient linkage to treatment when needed. The program, called STOP (Screen, Treat, Overcome, and Prevent) HIV (www.cecentral.com/stophiv), will target primary care providers in the greater Lexington region and southern and eastern counties of Kentucky.

The CDC estimates that more than half of American adults are not tested for HIV. People living with unknown HIV infections account for nearly 30% of new HIV transmissions. Data collected by the Kentucky Department of Health has revealed alarming trends in transmission routes. STOP HIV will engage primary care providers to screen all adult patients to prevent new diagnoses and reduce transmission rates across Kentucky particularly among high-risk populations (PWIDs, black MSMs, women). Effective HIV screening remains the most significant barrier to prevention and treatment.

"The CDC set a national goal to decrease new HIV diagnoses by 25%, but Kentucky is currently at less than 4%," said Keisa L. Fallin-Bennett, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Kentucky. "A greater emphasis must be placed on primary care providers to screen all adult patients in an effort to prevent more new diagnoses."

"In Kentucky, blacks accounted for 33% of new HIV infections but just 9% of the population", added Oluwaseun O. Falade, MBBS, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This data suggests clinicians need to improve screening rates for those populations."

STOP HIV employs a multiplatform approach designed to demonstrate actual practice change through:
• Education directed to Kentucky clinicians focusing on the importance of regular screening, identifying high-risk patient populations, modeling screening conversations, evaluating treatment options, and addressing preventive care strategies.
• Pre/Post measurement of screening rates through EHR data reviews and other measures.
• Treatment of HIV in the primary care practice and when to refer to HIV specialists.
• HIV prevention techniques, including safer sex practices and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), to reduce transmissions in high-risk populations.