CCO Infectious Disease Podcast

Starting ART: Dialogues on Optimizing Engagement in HIV Care

Episode Summary

In this podcast episode, Isolde Butler, MD, MPH, and Marissa Gonzalez discuss evidence-based best practices when initiating ART that can optimize sustained engagement in care.

Episode Notes

In this podcast episode, Isolde Butler, MD, MPH, a healthcare professional caring for people living with HIV, and Marissa Gonzalez, an individual living with HIV, discuss strategies to improve healthcare professionals’ competencies in delivering optimal HIV care from the start to better support patients in overcoming barriers to sustained care engagement.

The topics they discuss include: 

• An introduction to the guidelines on ART initiation—start quickly and choose the therapy that is effective and tolerable
• The patient experience, from initial diagnosis to treatment selection, noting that where people get diagnosed matters in determining the level of support they will receive
• The complete HIV care team: healthcare professionals, navigators, case managers, behavioral health providers, mental health providers, and so on. Smaller clinics may not be able to provide adequate support to meet all patient needs
• How to navigate the first visit after an HIV diagnosis, including patient–provider treatment discussions on the available therapies that can help with stigma
• HIV stigma education; navigating the miseducation and misinformation

Presenters:

Isolde F. Butler, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Cresentcare
New Orleans, Louisiana

Marissa Gonzalez
Chair
Community Advisory Board
The Well Project

Link to full program:
https://bit.ly/3TqVnl1