AAHIVM is pleased to announce Dr. Kevin Fiscella, MD, MPH, of Jordan Health in Rochester, NY, is the winner of the sixth annual AAHIVM/Institute for Technology in Health Care HIV Practice Award. Dr. Fiscella will receive $20,000 in recognition of his innovative use of technology in caring for people living with HIV.
Using a community-based participatory research approach involving persons living with HIV (PLWH), clinicians and AIDS organizations, Dr. Fiscella and his team developed URHealth, an electronic patient health record (ePHR) for PLWH. It is unique because it uses the patient’s own data to prompt him or her to ask their HIV clinicians about specific gaps in care.
Click here to read the AAHIVM press release or watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Fiscella’s URHealth program!
The use of technology in medicine has been growing exponentially over the last decade and will continue to do so. Technologic advances will allow enhanced quality in patient care by improving communication between heath care providers, as well as between health care providers and patients, speeding the transmission of laboratory and radiologic data and even in direct patient care by allowing remote examination and monitoring of patients. Potential applications in HIV care are extensive and growing.
Given these advances, in the Fall of 2010, the Institute for Technology in Health Care (ITHC), a small foundation located in Washington, DC, approached the Academy to gage interest in partnering with them to help acknowledge and encourage innovative technologies in HIV care. It is a fitting partnership, as ITHC is interested in stimulating innovative projects that use technology from any field to benefit health and the AAHIVM Members are the front-line practitioners in HIV care.
The Academy accepted this challenge and established the AAHIVM/Institute for Technology in Health Care HIV Practice Award. ITHC generously contributed the two $10,000 unrestricted cash awards, to be administered by the Academy.
AAHIVM reached out to another partner, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). AAMI is dedicated to increasing the understanding, safety, and efficacy of medical instrumentation. This organization has been collaborating for many years with the ITHC foundation offering a similar award to their members.
To ensure the award applications are well vetted by a diverse and experience panel, the Academy has created an awards committee made up of Academy physicians, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners, national board members and at least one non-AAHIVM member.
The awards committee includes:
Marjorie Golden, MD, AAHIVS
AAHIVM Board of Directors
Hospital of Saint Raphael
New Haven, Connecticut
Dennis Myers, MSN, FNP, AAHIVS
Evansville Multi-Specialty Clinic
Evansville, IN
Richard Prokesch, MD, FACP, FIDSA, AAHIVS – CHAIR
AAHIVM Board of Directors
Private Practice
Riverdale, Georgia
James Scott, PharmD, MEd, FCCP, AAHIVE
Western University of Health Sciences
Pomona, California
The Awards Committee agreed upon the following definition for medical technology: Medical technology encompasses a wide range of health care products which can be used to diagnose, monitor and treat disease. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered, and as a direct consequence, improve patient outcomes. Technology can positively impact education, communication, access to care, timeliness of diagnosis, treatment options, and length of stay.
The awards committee has established the award criteria and an application process. To be considered for this award, a candidate must meet all the following eligibility criteria:
• Be a licensed health care provider in the United States.
• The practice can be defined as a private practice, a hospital or university based clinic, a group practice, a community health center, HMO, or other entity that provides direct clinical care to those with HIV disease.
• There must either be at least 200 HIV patients served by the practice or 50% of a smaller practice to be eligible.
• The technology used in the practice must be accessible to other HIV practices to improve their care of patients.
• Candidates must submit a completed application form describing the technology used in their practice to be considered for the award.
• Candidates for the award must be prepared, if they are selected, to publish a paper describing the technology in a professional journal.
• The selected candidate/s will also present their innovative technology at a professional conference.
• The selected candidates for the award will be acknowledged on AAHIVM’s website, and will be featured with an article in the HIV Specialist magazine.
• Candidates may self nominate or be nominated by a colleague, with the permission of the candidate.
• AAHIVM’s Board of Directors and the members of the Technology Awards Committee are not eligible for the award.