Clinical Care Options Announces Partnership With HealthHIV To Provide Needed Education To HIV Primary Care Providers

RESTON, Va., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Clinical Care Options (CCO), a leader in next-generation medical education, information, and publishing for healthcare professionals, announces a new series of CME/CE-certified interactive local live workshops developed and implemented in partnership with HealthHIV, the leading national HIV nonprofit organization building the capacity of primary care providers to integrate HIV care into their practices.

The live meeting series and accompanying online education will address an important subset of primary care providers who are already managing a significant caseload of patients living with HIV and looking to improve their practical skills. Primary care providers are increasingly caring for patients living with HIV. These primary care providers represent a critically important link in improving access to HIV care but require capacity building and education to assist them in implementing appropriate, individualized, evidence-based HIV management to maximize patient retention in care.

The program is designed to improve clinicians' ability to apply evidence-based best practices in HIV care. "CCO's partnership with HealthHIV brings together our complementary areas of expertise to develop and deliver this important program to the HIV primary care community," said Edward King, MA, CCO's Vice President, Editorial. "The live and online educational activities will address key management challenges and effectively reach this important group of HIV treaters."

HealthHIV's experience has indicated that an increasing number of primary care providers are treating patients living with HIV but are not themselves HIV specialists. This emerging class of HIV primary care providers also reports that HIV-specific information resources are often intimidating and so fails to make full use of valuable resources that could provide assistance in patient management. To help minimize the possibility of such barriers, CCO is enhancing inPractice® HIV, CCO's continuously updated point-of-care resource of a digital textbook enhanced by 6 additional databases, by adding a custom resource page designed for primary care providers. This resource page will present selected content from inPractice® HIV in accessible and user-friendly minicurricula for this audience.

"Partnering with CCO allows HealthHIV to apply our deep understanding of the needs of HIV primary care providers to develop more effective training that will enhance patient access to quality HIV care," said HealthHIV Executive Director Brian Hujdich. "According to HealthHIV's 2nd Annual State of HIV Primary Care survey of 1,800 providers, HIV primary care providers are practicing in increasing numbers in the United States and reporting increasing HIV case loads. Partnerships such as this allow us to more efficiently and effectively train the rapidly increasing ranks of HIV primary care providers."

To learn more about available Clinical Care Options HIV education, visit clinicaloptions.com/HIV.

About Clinical Care Options
Clinical Care Options, a leader in the development of innovative, interactive, online, and live medical education programs and proprietary medical education technologies for healthcare professionals, creates and publishes original continuing medical education and information resources that are designed specifically for healthcare providers in the areas of HIV, hepatology/gastroenterology, and oncology. CCO's educational programs are developed not only to provide the latest scientific information but also to support the understanding, confidence, application, and competence of healthcare professional learners. In addition to the latest point-of-care resource, inPractice®, CCO provides a spectrum of live and online educational programs and formats. For more information about the company and its programs, visit clinicaloptions.com.

About HealthHIV
HealthHIV, a national, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, seeks to advance effective prevention, care, and support for people living with, or at risk for, HIV/AIDS by providing education, capacity building, health services research, and advocacy to organizations, communities, and professionals. HealthHIV leads the AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETC) National Center for HIV Care in Minority Communities (NCHCMC). For more information, visit www.HealthHIV.org or www.NCHCMC.org. You also can follow HealthHIV on Twitter: @HealthHIV and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthHIV.  

SOURCE Clinical Care Options