Research Matters at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC):
UA HIV Clinic to Test New Counseling Method To Prevent HIV Transmission

 
Contact: Katie Riley (520) 626-4828 or Susan Guthrie (602) 631-6555                                                   Feb. 13, 2006

The University of Arizona’s HIV Clinic is one of 15 centers nationwide selected by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to test a new patient counseling system designed to reduce the number of new HIV infections.
 
The UA received a $75,000 year long federal grant to replicate preliminary research by the University of Connecticut that suggests that specific counseling of HIV-positive patients at routine medical visits significantly reduces risky sexual behaviors likely to transmit infection.
 
As part of the replication study, staff at the UA HIV clinic underwent training in Connecticut’s Clinician-Initiated Prevention Intervention for HIV Positives, or CHIPS program.  They will work collaboratively with their HIV patients to assess risk behaviors, evaluate patients’ readiness to practice safer behaviors, strategize steps for reducing or eliminating risky behaviors and prescribe an agreed-upon goal to be reached at the next visit.
 
Clinic physicians, nurses, health educators and HIV specialists will employ a specific type of counseling called “Options Intervention,” which relies on behavior medication techniques. Prevention discussions between doctor and patient will become part of the clinic’s standard of care at every patient visit.
 
The UA HIV Clinic, managed by the Department of Infectious Disease in the UA College of Medicine, serves approximately 300 HIV-positive patients in Southern Arizona. Stephen Klotz, MD, UA professor of medicine, is the clinic’s medical director and principal investigator for this study.
 
 
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Susan Guthrie
Associate Director, Public Affairs

University of Arizona, College of Medicine - Phoenix
4001 North Third Street, Suite 401
Phoenix, Arizona  85012
602-631-6555 (office) 480-241-7738 (cell)
sguthrie@email.arizona.edu

www.phoenix.arizona.edu

 

To read about the expansion of the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix go to http://www.phoenix.medicine.arizona.edu/About/News/Campus/