University at Buffalo: Health Care Providers Split on Who Should Prescribe HIV Prevention Drug
Published May 10, 2019
Health care practitioners are split when it comes to opinions on which provider should take the lead in prescribing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is administered to people at high risk for human immunodeficiency HIV.
That’s according to the findings of a new study by researchers from the University at Buffalo, who interviewed PrEP-prescribing providers to conduct a qualitative analysis of their perspectives on the preventive medication.
Their paper was published online ahead of print earlier this month in the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.
In the U.S., there are more than 1.1 million people living with HIV, and 38,500 new infections occurring annually. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.2 million Americans are eligible for the PrEP drug, but only 150,000 take it.
“Understanding barriers and facilitators to PrEP adoption and implementation from both current and future health care providers is key to accelerate roll-out of this preventive medication to target populations who meet clinical eligibility criteria,” said Dr. Sarahmona Przybyla, the study’s lead author.
Dr. Przybyla is an assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions. Dr. Przybyla’s co-authors on the study include Dr. Susan LaValley, research assistant professor of family medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, and Dr. Noelle St. Vil, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at UB.