AAHIVM Announces HIV/AIDS Specialist Qualifications

Los Angeles, CA -- The American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM) has established criteria defining what it means to be a specialist among physicians and other health care workers treating individuals with HIV/AIDS. The development of a definition comes at a time when AIDS patients, health care providers, and public-health officials are attempting to address the rapid changes and escalating costs of treating HIV/AIDS.

The Academy's effort concerning HIV/AIDS specialists is among the first attempts nationally to establish a yardstick by which to measure the quality of care being provided to individuals with AIDS. The Academy's definition emphasizes that the base line criteria for an HIV specialist is the ability to demonstrate Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in the area of HIV treatment. This differs from other organizations' definitions that require only that an arbitrary number of patients are seen or units of Continuing Medical Education (CME) completed. Other criteria that AAHIVM requires an HIV specialist satisfy are:

1. Be a licensed physician, doctor of pharmacology, nurse practitioner or physician assistant.

2. Take part in ongoing medical education programs (at least 15 CME, or continuing medical education credits annually, as well as complete a self-assessment examination; or complete 30 hours of CME credits and not be required to participate annually in an HIV Medicine Competency Maintenance Exam).

3. Participate in, if receiving fewer than 30 credits of CME/year, a self-testing assessment program to measure core competencies (the Academy will soon announce the core competencies or "body of knowledge" an HIV specialist should possess).
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4. Treated a minimum of at least 20 HIV patients in the past two years.

AAHIVM believes this criterion establishes "a gold standard" by which to measure the competence of the HIV/AIDS specialist, including what specialists should be capable of doing and the skills necessary to accomplish the tasks.

The development of an HIV specialist definition heralds a change in the way HIV/AIDS is managed and acknowledges the unique role "frontline" AIDS health care workers play in providing patients with quality care. It enables HIV specialists to have a greater voice in the debate among public-health officials and health care payers concerning the complexities (with antiretroviral therapy), time, and costs (upwards of $7 billion per year) of treating individuals with HIV/AIDS.

AAHIVM's recommendations are concurrent with research studies indicating that medical costs are lowered and better health care results when an experienced AIDS specialist physician is consulted in the care of HIV/AIDS patients.

AAHIVM's certification will be made available to physicians, doctors of pharmacology, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.

Back to The Nexus April/May 2001 contents page.