Vindico educational initiative extends HIV prevention to at-risk patients

THOROFARE, N.J. — Vindico Medical Education and partners have announced the completion of an initiative that has increased the number of patients at risk for HIV infection who are eligible for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, according to a press release.

Practicing Clinicians Exchange — a group that provides continuing education to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) — and the University of Nebraska College of Nursing joined Vindico in the educational program to address barriers to accessing PrEP.

Vindico provides continuing medical education to physicians, nurses and pharmacists.

According to the release, PrEP was approved by the FDA in 2006, but primary care providers and patients have been largely unaware of the therapy and recommendations regarding its use.

“One of the solutions to expanding the pool of providers offering PrEP beyond HIV specialists is to integrate this approach into primary care, which now includes approximately 349,000 NPs and PAs practicing in the United States,” Bradley Mock, CEO of Practicing Clinicians Exchange, said in the release. “With the aging of the nation’s population, along with rising health care costs, NPs and PAs are being increasingly recognized as a key solution to our health care crisis.”

The effort by Vindico and its partners to confront this issue consisted of six live educational activities during the summer of 2016. Afterward, clinicians were recruited to join a “customized practice-building initiative” — including chart reviews and weekly educational activities, as well as baseline and post-education surveys.

In all, 52 NPs and PAs completed the initiative and committed to improve PrEP access for at-risk patients. A 30% relative increase in the number of patients starting PrEP followed, organizers said.

They added that the number of patient encounters involving PrEP discussions doubled, as did time spent discussing adherence challenges and strategies to address those challenges.

Robert A. Esgro, Vindico’s chief operating officer, said the initiative addresses changing demands in the medical field.

“As U.S. health care shifts toward a value-based model, it becomes increasingly important to educate providers on how to adopt the latest advances in evidence-based care,” he said. “This collaborative educational initiative demonstrated the potential of performance-improvement [continuing education] to encourage providers to implement practice changes toward enhanced patient care for the prevention of HIV transmission.”

Disclosure: Vindico Medical Education is part of The Wyanoke Group, the publisher of Healio.com.