Understanding that the complexity and segmentation of the healthcare system can pose unique challenges to providing medical care in non-traditional settings in the United States, a formative evaluation was conducted to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness, and whether enrolled clients completed the care cascade measured by four performance indicators: linkage to care, treatment initiation, treatment completion, and achievement of SVR-12.
This session will review the project design and provide an overview of preliminary project outcomes, specifically focusing on the unique role State Health Agencies are equipped to fulfill when seeking to generate registries, verify eligibility, and engage individuals. Finally, the session will discuss how these activities have informed the development of a syndemic framework aimed at ending HCV with strategies focused on disrupting transmission in real time while also addressing HIV and STIs.
People who use drugs (PWUDs) face structural barriers to access prevention and care for hepatitis C (HCV) infection. While many inpatient substance use treatment programs (ISUTPs) often screen for HCV, few provide treatment, leading to missed opportunities for care. This presentation will introduce a client-centered telehealth model, initiating HCV treatment during detoxification and rehabilitation to enhance early engagement and ensure continuity of care.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a serious public health concern in the U.S., especially among high-risk groups. While social support is thought to influence health outcomes, its role in HCV diagnosis is less clear. Using pre-pandemic NHANES data (2017–March 2020), this study explored whether limitations in social support measured by self-reported access to routine care and inability to obtain needed medical care were associated with HCV screening outcomes among high-risk adults.
Contingency Management (CM) is a behavioral intervention option for stimulant use that involves immediate, tangible rewards to individuals to reinforce positive self-identified behavior change. In 2023, in response to rising rates of stimulant overdose deaths, California became the first state in the U.S. to offer CM as a benefit through public insurance. Having already embraced CM over two decades prior through the Positive Reinforcement Opportunity Project (PROP)—originally designed for men who have sex with men to reduce sexually transmitted infections through reducing methamphetamine use—San Francisco was well positioned to expand this model, and over the last two years expanded CM to more than a dozen programs throughout the city benefitting diverse populations.
This presentation will highlight how to build a successful HIV testing program in the community. These are not abstract methods, but concrete steps to provide a clear plan on creating an HIV testing program that will ensure more people will have access to free, rapid testing.
This presentation will discuss the opportunities for implementing linkage to comprehensive services by assessing populations who are seen in the ED testing for STIs, including syphilis and HIV. We will explore the operations of identifying eligible patients, including our collaborations with the public health department, our Infectious Disease Clinic, and our Title V Clinic. We will highlight what is going well and discuss areas of improvement.
This presentation will also review the successes and challenges of launching a rapid PrEP program in an ED setting.
As part of the Hillsborough Health Equity Plan, a formative research initiative was conducted to increase the uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Black and Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) aged 25–34 in Hillsborough County, Florida. The study explored patient and provider experiences within on-demand care settings, such as urgent care clinics and emergency departments (EDs), where opportunities for PrEP intervention are often missed.
In the US and globally, there have been two secular events exogenous to the HCV epidemic that has impacted HCV negatively. The first is well documented with the accompanying rise in the Opioid epidemic resulting in the uptick in HCV infections particularly among the population younger than the baby boomer generation. The second is the advent of COVID-19 that caused disruptions in testing, linkage and treatment of people living with Hepatitis C. We showcase the impact COVID 19 had on our testing program in Alabama.
This study aims to assess the follow-up eligibility of individuals with HCV presumed LTFU. Pre-contact investigation (PCI) to assess ineligibility, including due to death or outdated contact information, was encouraged. Data came from the patient registries of 23 of 30 grant-funded organizations in different clinical, community and geographical settings. Data sources included patient, state, prison, and public records.
The Target4 project partners with the University of Kentucky’s Bluegrass Care Clinic to integrate Hepatitis C telehealth services into syringe services programs throughout the commonwealth to address access barriers, improve treatment outcomes, and progress Hepatitis C elimination efforts in the Commonwealth. This presentation will discuss the process used to integrate telehealth services into the harm reduction environment in partnership with the local health departments, and share outcomes, successes, and lessons learned along the way.
This presentation offers a clinical and social work-centered approach to addressing the mental health needs of Black LGBTQIA+ men through trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and identity-affirming strategies. This session will explore how toxic stress stemming from early-life adversity impacts emotional regulation, relationship-building, and self-worth. Special emphasis will be placed on how systemic oppression, societal stigma, and the lack of culturally competent mental health services heighten these challenges.
The North Jersey Community Research Initiative (NJCRI) conducted a retrospective chart review to evaluate real-world utilization of oral and long-acting injectable PrEP (LA-Cabotegravir) among individuals accessing services between 2024 and 2025. NJCRI serves a predominantly Black and Brown, urban population in Newark, NJ, many of whom face housing instability, food insecurity, and limited access to affirming healthcare.
The U.S. has approved long-acting injectable PrEP options such as cabotegravir (Apretude) and lenacapavir (Yzugo), yet major challenges remain around equitable access, demand generation, and health-system readiness. This project explores what the United States can learn from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that successfully expanded injectable contraceptives, an intervention with striking parallels to injectable PrEP.
Since 2018, Texas has faced a steep rise in syphilis cases particularly among marginalized groups such as Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black individuals. These findings are parallel to HIV trends in Texas. This model merges surveillance with proactive prevention and clinical coordination, targeting individuals at heightened HIV risk. Ongoing data collection on patient demographics, barriers, and facilitators will optimize implementation and elevate prevention outcomes in underserved communities.
Strengthening OBGYN capacity to integrate PrEP into routine care is critical to reducing HIV incidence and advancing health equity for Black women in Mississippi. Findings will guide a forthcoming statewide, grant-funded initiative to scale PrEP delivery in women’s health settings, supporting the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative’s goals and addressing persistent disparities in HIV prevention access and outcomes.
Adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) experience significant challenges with healthcare engagement. This population experiences lower rates of retention in care compared to their adult counterparts, resulting in poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy, higher viral load, and lower CD4 counts that negatively impact their health.
This study explored how involvement with a multidisciplinary healthcare team impacts healthcare engagement and identified facilitators and barriers to retention of care from the perspectives of AYA living with HIV.
Recent data from the U.S estimated that over half (57%) of transgender women (TW), aged 50+, are living with HIV. Findings lacked analysis by age, gender, and race/ethnicity, but found 62% HIV prevalence among Black trans women, suggesting potential HIV disparities for older TW of color. This study focused on HIV outcomes and health services access for TW aged 50 and older, making important contributions to the context of care for this population sub-group, who shoulder disproportionately high HIV prevalence. Findings highlight the critical role of support services in HIV care engagement and the potential for expanded access and intergenerational peer support programs to ameliorate HIV-related disparities based on age and race.
In this session, participants will learn about the core elements of a community -based syndemic approach to HIV care engagement to enhance capacity to support PLWH throughout the HIV care continuum. This workshop will demonstrate how community health workers improve involvement in comprehensive prevention services.
This systematic review explores the role of CAB + RPV-LA injectables in antiretroviral therapy (ART), with a focus on patient-reported outcomes from five key clinical trials.
This session presents data from the National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey (2023) conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to present the current state of availability of testing and treatment services for HIV, HCV, and STIs.
A translational research project implemented at a Sacramento County sexual health center to reduce barriers to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment. To address elevated prevalence of Hepatitis C in the area, Sacramento County Public Health’s Sexual Health Clinic (SHC) opted to participate in a research project to develop and implement organizational supports and workflows to improve rates of HCV treatment for patients served in this setting.
Expanded screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection aims to improve awareness of diagnosis, yet treatment uptake remains suboptimal due to structural, social, and individual-level barriers. People who use drugs face further challenges in accessing HCV treatment due to fragmented care, stigma, and limited support. Strategies to overcome these challenges are needed to improve health equity and achieve HCV elimination. We developed a quality improvement pilot project to integrate expedited DAA initiation, defined as prescribing of DAA during hospital admission.
The Department of Health and Human Services developed a National Strategic Plan to eliminate hepatitis C (HCV) as a public health threat by 2030. However, many barriers to accessing care remain. Pharmacists have increasingly played a role in the treatment of HCV and can support patients and care teams with navigating barriers at multiple steps along the care cascade. The Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) model offers a strategy to leverage expertise of embedded pharmacists to improve HCV treatment access and outcomes.
Michigan's hepatitis C (HCV) cases have been on the decline since 2022, due to several coordinated efforts including, eliminating Medicaid restrictions, partnering with a pharmaceutical company to offer low-cost direct acting-antivirals (DAA), to hiring an academic detailer to educate medical students and providers, to creating a hepatitis C disease intervention specialist (DIS) program to link individuals to care.
This presentation will share key outcomes, implementation strategies, lessons learned, and future adaptations aimed at reducing barriers and promoting employment equity for TGNC youth. Us Helping Us is also exploring opportunities to expand the program and its impact.
Using Oregon’s All-Payer All-Claims dataset (2016–2023), this analysis examines GAC utilization among transgender and gender-diverse adolescents, identifying disparities by insurance type, age, and sex assigned at birth—even within one of the nation’s most affirming policy environments. Quantitative findings are contextualized with lived experience: the journey of raising a ten-year-old transgender son, illustrating, through narrative and video excerpts, how timely, evidence-based, and affirming care fosters gender euphoria, confidence, safety, and family cohesion.
Despite the wide availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) as an effective treatment option for HIV, a substantial portion of people with HIV (PWH) in the United States remain out of care or inconsistently take their medications, leading to an unsuppressed viral load despite diagnosis—a critical gap that undermines both individual health outcomes and public health objectives.
This conference is supported, in part, by independent educational grants from ineligible companies. A full list of supporters is available here. All accredited content has been developed and delivered in accordance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence and the criteria of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™, and is free of commercial bias.
