04 Apr American Academy of HIV Medicine and the Institute for Technology in Health Care Announce the 2016 HIV Practice Award Winner
WASHINGTON D.C. – AAHIVM is pleased to announce Dr. Jason Leider, MD, PhD, FACP, of the Jacobi Medical Center ACS Clinic in the Bronx, NY, as the winner of the fifth annual AAHIVM/Institute for Technology in Health Care HIV Practice Award. Dr. Leider will receive $20,000 in recognition of his innovative use of technology in HIV care.
Alongside his colleague, Dr. Yvette Calderon, Dr. Leider developed Project BRIEF which stands for Behavior intervention, Rapid HIV test, Innovative video, Efficient cost and health care savings, Facilitated seamless linkage to outpatient HIV care. Project BRIEF is an innovative testing and linkage to care model that uses multimedia education and Public Health Advocates (PHAs) to counsel and test patients for HIV in the Emergency Department (ED), Inpatients wards (IP) and community pharmacies.
The HIV epidemic in the Bronx is significant with 25,000 of the Bronx’s 1.3 million population living with HIV, ranking only behind the states of Florida, Texas, and California. Dr. Leider’s challenge was to provide HIV testing in chaotic environments to a population at high risk for HIV that also faces significant barriers to testing such as stigma, poor access to care, and low literacy.
Since Project BRIEF’s inception in 2005, over 200,000 people have been tested. Acceptance for HIV testing has been 93.8% via Project BRIEF, with impressive satisfaction scores. The BRIEF model allows quality of care, sensitive to the individual’s needs and challenges, to be addressed while maintaining high levels of linkage to care. Dr. Leider and his colleagues have been able to replicate the model in other clinical settings, both regionally, nationally and internationally.
“BRIEF helps curb the epidemic, by educating diverse populations about HIV and risk reduction, increasing HIV testing volume, linking HIV positive individuals to expert HIV care via an open access system, thus aiding in reduction of community viral load,” stated Dr. Leider. “I am honored to be recognized for the program’s success and will utilize the award funds to expand the program to even more people.”
According the award committee, the goal is to acknowledge those who have created, adapted and/or used innovative technology in their HIV practice and to share that technological knowledge with others in the practice of HIV medicine to improve patient care.
As the winner of the AAHIVM/Institute for Technology in Healthcare HIV Practice Award, Dr. Leider will be presenting on Project BRIEF at the 2016 ACTHIV Conference in Dallas, Texas on April 28-30th.
“We recognize that through the creative and effective use of technology, Dr. Leider has been able to treat patients in need despite many obstacles,” stated James M. Friedman, AAHIVM executive director. “The hopeful continuation of this award for years to come gives us the privilege to share HIV care providers with the best practices in technology, thereby constantly improving the quality of patient care for all.”
About AAHIVM
The American Academy of HIV Medicine is a professional organization that supports the HIV practitioner and promotes accessible, quality care for all Americans living with HIV disease. Our membership of HIV practitioners and credentialed providers give direct care to more than three-fourths of HIV patients in the US.
About ITHC
The Institute for Technology in Health Care (ITHC) encourages the use of technology in various fields to benefit health care. ITHC wishes to stimulate users, researchers, and students to present papers to groups of their peers, or write articles that demonstrate how they have used technology from any field to benefit the practices of medicine to improve health in any community. It is also interested in stimulating innovative projects that use technology from any field to benefit health.
For more information, Contact:
Amber McCracken