Report Outlines Lessons From AIDS Advocates

A new report from the consulting firm HCM Strategists and the nonprofit group FasterCures "analyzes the factors that helped patient advocates drive research into and drug development for [HIV/AIDS], and tries to figure out whether there are lessons to be learned for other disease advocates," the Wall Street Journal's "Health Blog" writes. "While advocates now have a level of access and face time with policy makers and officials that took years for HIV/AIDS activists to win, the report argues that this doesn't mean advocates "have their attention and, in some instances, it only means that the decision makers can 'check the box' about consulting with the community without having really listened," according to the report, the blog notes (Marcus, 6/16).