HIV Heatmap Identifies Hotspots to Target Prevention, Treatment Efforts

In a continuous push to reduce the number of new HIV diagnoses and increase viral suppression rates in Long Island and Queens, clinicians from an HIV primary care program are using data and technology to identify HIV hot spots and facilitate prevention and treatment efforts in those areas.

A team from Northwell Health’s Center for AIDS Research and Treatment (CART) at North Shore University Hospital has a multidisciplinary program—complete with social workers, nurse case managers, health educators, and dietitians—and has a 93.6% viral suppression rate. “But, we wanted to look forward and say, ‘Is everyone doing well?’ We wanted to see if there were some people not benefitting equally."

So, the team created a 2-fold initiative. They first collected information on incidence of sexually transmitted infections from the state health department and results of viral loads being sent to the health system. Laying out the data, the team was able to create a heat map that identified where new diagnoses and high-risk behavior was occurring as well as where people with unsuppressed viral loads were residing.

Click to continue reading on The American Journal of Managed Care.