HRSA’s program called “Special Products of National Significance” or SPNS http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/partfspns.html has been addressing emerging trends and needs along the HIV Care Continuum since the early 1990s. The purpose for the SPNS program is to provide HIV service delivery through demonstration products that focus primarily on underserved, underinsured, and uninsured populations.
One of the recent SPNS projects is the “Systems Linkages and Access to Care for Populations at High Risk of HIV Infection Initiative http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/special/systemslinkages.html. As part of the initiative, grantees in six states are integrating different components of the public health system to help people with HIV. These components include surveillance, counseling and testing, and treatments to help develop new and effective systems for hard-to-reach populations.
The program targets groups of people who are at high risk for or infected with HIV but who are unaware of their HIV status, as well as those who are aware but have never been referred to care, and for those individuals that are aware but have refused referral to care.
A new initiative is working to facilitate sharing health data through secure electronic record systems. The initiative called “The Health Information Technology Capacity Building for Monitoring and Improving Health Outcomes along the HIV Care Continuum” issued a Request for Proposal March 2014 to provide funding for four Ryan White Part A or Part B grantees. The total funding is scheduled to be $2,000.000 annually.
The initiative’s goal is to use integrated clinical, surveillance, laboratory, and other program data to improve health outcomes among People Living with HIV (PLWH). This is important because the ability to measure outcomes from all relevant HIV data systems helps providers and policymakers identify where and when affected groups are falling off the HIV Care Continuum.
For more information, contact Adan Cajina, SPNS Branch Chief at acajina@hrsa.gov.