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Community-based program effective for linking patients to HCV care

The Do One Thing program, a community-based HCV infection screening and linkage-to-care initiative, successfully directed Philadelphia patients to HCV care, according to new study data published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

“New testing technologies, coupled with new medications that can cure HCV, provide overwhelming opportunity to cure millions of Americans living with HCV, many of whom don't even know they are infected,” researcher Amy Nunn, MS, ScD, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences in the Brown University School of Public Health, said in a press release. “Our paper proves that scaling screening and treatment, even in neighborhoods with the highest rates of infection, is possible. We overcame all the commonly cited obstacles in this high-risk population.”

Amy Nunn

Nunn and colleagues, including Stacey B. Trooskin, MD, PhD, of Drexel University College of Medicine, developed the program for a medically underserved neighborhood of Philadelphia. Physicians, social workers and patient advocates recruited patients for the program through street outreach and conducting door-to-door HCV screenings. The researchers aimed to direct uninsured patients to insurance programs, facilitate referrals from primary care physicians and link patients to specialists with the intention of treating and curing HCV, according to the research.

Stacey B. Trooskin

The researchers screened 1,301 participants for HCV and found anti-HCV seroprevelance was 3.9% and that 2.8% of participants had HCV. Sixty-four percent of infected patients received referrals for care, which was the biggest hurdle to obtaining a subspecialty provider.

Sixty-six percent of those infected (n=23) had insurance at the time of diagnosis. Of the other 12 people, eight received insurance after HCV diagnosis as a result of assistance through the program.

“This study demonstrates the importance of community-based testing for HCV in identifying previously undiagnosed individuals and re-engaging those aware of their diagnosis but not currently in care,” Trooskin said in the release. “We learned that a comprehensive approach to nonclinical testing is critical and must integrate immediate access to confirmatory testing as well as intensive patient navigation to effectively link patients to care.”

Disclosure: Nunn and Trooskin report receiving support from Gilead Sciences.