Dr. Donna Sweet, MD, named chair of initiative’s National HIV Workforce Expansion Steering Committee
PRINCETON, N.J. & PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced the awarding of a Positive Charge grant to the American College of Physicians (ACP) Foundation to support ACP Foundation’s HIV workforce capacity building initiative. ACP Foundation’s initiative will address the U.S. HIV medical workforce shortage and will increase healthcare capacity building and skills transfer support programs to help benefit people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in areas of high unmet need. The Positive Charge grant to ACP Foundation totals $2.93 million over three years and is the second major Bristol-Myers Squibb Positive Charge grant focused on expanding access to HIV care and treatment in the U.S.
Studies have shown that HIV patients managed by an experienced HIV healthcare provider have better outcomes and receive more cost-effective care.1, 2 While the number of people with HIV in the U.S. continues to grow, with an estimated 56,000 new HIV infections occurring in each year,3 the HIV medical workforce is shrinking. The current HIV physician workforce is composed largely of the first generation of HIV medical providers who entered the field more than 20 years ago and are now retiring or leaving the field without sufficient numbers of new providers to replace them.4 The shortage in the HIV medical workforce is identified by several physician groups and government agencies, including the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), the HIV Medical Association (HIVMA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
With the Positive Charge grant, the ACP Foundation plans to address these issues through a mentoring program pairing HIV experts with primary care clinicians in areas with high HIV prevalence and few HIV experts. ACP Foundation recruited individuals from associations, patient advocacy groups, and government with the expertise and interest in expanding the HIV workforce to form a National HIV Workforce Expansion Steering Committee to advise on the design and implementation of the initiative.
ACP Foundation selected Dr. Donna Sweet, MD, AAHIVS, MACP, as the chair of the National HIV Workforce Expansion Steering Committee. Dr. Sweet is Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and Immediate Past Chair of the ACP Foundation and Chair-Elect of the Foundation's Programs Committee.
“The complexity of HIV care mandates that we have HIV experts to provide care and education to people living with HIV and AIDS, but there is a growing shortage of HIV experts,” said Dr. Donna Sweet, MD, AAHIVS, MACP. “With this generous Positive Charge grant provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb, the ACP Foundation is launching this important initiative to address the HIV medical workforce shortage, adding to the incredibly talented, experienced, and dedicated professionals that currently provide the complex care required by people who are living with HIV. This is an important step forward in increasing access to specialist care and improving outcomes for people living with HIV and AIDS in the U.S.”
“For more than two decades Bristol-Myers Squibb has been committed to discovering, developing and delivering medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, but we know that medicines alone cannot solve the problem,” said Raymond Sacchetti, senior vice president, U.S. Virology, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Our hope is that this Positive Charge grant to the American College of Physicians Foundation can deliver innovative and meaningful contributions to HIV care in the U.S. and truly impact the course of the HIV epidemic in this country.”
About The American College of Physicians Foundation
The American College of Physicians Foundation (ACPF) (www.acpfoundation.org), incorporated in 1999, was established to improve communication between ACP membership, patients, and caregivers to enhance medical outcomes. As a national leader in facilitating clinician/patient communication to improve health outcomes, the ACPF achieves its mission by convening national stakeholders to catalyze action. Supporting the mission of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the ACPF addresses the problem of low health literacy through promoting effective communication throughout the healthcare field.
About Positive Charge
Positive Charge is a comprehensive U.S.-based initiative from Bristol-Myers Squibb with a goal of enabling PLWHA to access care and treatment. Positive Charge is designed to support programs customized to meet the unique needs of individuals living with HIV, and is dedicated to working with health care providers, community members, advocates, and other organizations focused on access to care and treatment for PLWHA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb issued the first Positive Charge grant to the National AIDS Fund (now AIDS United) in January, 2010, and that grant is currently enabling more than 35 community-based organizations to help improve access to care for PLWHA in five regions of the U.S.: Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Oakland and San Francisco, California; the state of North Carolina; and the state of Louisiana.
About Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information, please visit http://www.bms.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bmsnews.
1 Bozzette SA, Joyce G, McCaffrey DF, et al. Expenditures for the care of HIV-infected patients in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. N Engl J Med. 2001;344(1):817-823.
2 Landon BE, Wilson IB,, Wenger NS, et al. Specialty training and specialization among physicians who treat HIV/AIDS in the United States. J Gen Intern Med. 2002;17(1):12-22.
3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: HIV in the United States: An Overview. July 2010. Accessed January 28, 2010. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/factsheets/pdf/us_overview.pdf
4 HIV Medicine Association. The Looming Crisis in HIV Care: Who Will Provide the Care? [Internet]. 2010 Jun [cited 2010 Dec 17];Available from: https://www.hivma.org/uploadedFiles/HIVMA/Site_Content/Resources/The%20Looming%20Crisis%20in%20HIV%20Care.pdf?n=6399
CONTACT:
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Media:
Cristi Barnett, 609-252-6028
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or
Investors:
John Elicker, 609-252-4611
[email protected]
or
ACP Foundation
Media:
Jean Krause, 215-351-2802
[email protected]
KEYWORDS: United States North America New Jersey Pennsylvania
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Health AIDS Biotechnology Pharmaceutical Other Health Philanthropy Other Philanthropy Foundation General Health
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