Expansion of national medical education program now includes certification of HIV prevention workforce designating competency in delivering culturally competent PrEP and other HIV prevention services
Washington, DC – March 24, 2022 — Today, HealthHIV announces the HealthHIV HIV Prevention Certified Provider™ Certification Program, elevating its HIV prevention education program to a certification of the HIV prevention workforce through the free, online, self-paced CME curriculum. Since 2019, this successful program has trained over 5,000 clinicians and other healthcare professionals on providing effective, comprehensive and culturally competent HIV prevention services.
Upon completion of the HealthHIV HIV Prevention Certified Provider Certification Program, clinicians receive designation as a certified HIV PCP. This certification is accredited through PeerView Institute and Medical Learning Institute and signifies competency in interdisciplinary, multi-level strategies for HIV prevention. Successful participants also receive a listing in the HIV PCP National Online Directory. This directory is available for consumers to locate providers who have demonstrated proficiency in HIV prevention.
The expansion of this program comes at a pivotal time in HIV prevention efforts. CDC’s Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America highlights the increased need for more providers to prescribe pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and support clients with HIV in becoming virally suppressed. HealthHIV’s HIV PCP Certification Program prepares and educates HIV care providers (MD, DO, NP, PA), infectious disease specialists, internists, primary care providers, nurses, pharmacists, and providers of care for patients at risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV to deliver effective, comprehensive, culturally competent HIV prevention interventions, thereby expanding the HIV prevention workforce with the goal of ending the HIV epidemic.
“The ongoing engagement of thousands of providers in this program supports the expansion of it to a certification program, as a permanent medical education offering to certify and expand the HIV prevention healthforce,” said HealthHIV Executive Director Brian Hujdich. “Successfully ending the HIV epidemic will require a healthforce that is prepared with timely, culturally competent and comprehensive HIV prevention education to deliver optimal HIV prevention services. Our HIV PCP Certification Program empowers providers with expansive training and patients with the ability to locate an HIV prevention certified provider.”
The program is composed of eight e-learning courses in HIV prevention. The curriculum is updated annually and more frequently as needed, based on approval of new biomedical interventions and release of evidence-based practices. All modules are accredited and participants can earn up to 8.5 credits (CME, MOC, NCPD, CPE, and IPCE) for completion of the certification. Following are details on the modules in the program.
- Module 1, HIV Prevention: Epidemiology, Interventions, and Strategies – Module 1 covers the history and epidemiology of HIV in the United States and current policies regarding treatment for and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
- Module 2, HIV Testing and Assessing Risk for Short Behavioral Intervention and Referral – Module 2 covers screening for and diagnosis of HIV infection, how to identify HIV risk, and appropriate short behavioral interventions.
- Module 3, Maintaining Serostatus Negative and Viral Suppression: Preventing HIV Acquisition and Transmission – Module 3 covers PEP and PrEP, the importance of sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment for HIV prevention, and the meaning and implications of U=U.
- Module 4, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Clinical – Module 4 covers the clinical basics of a PrEP intervention, CDC’s PrEP guidance, and emerging modalities for PrEP.
- Module 5, Enhancing Cultural Humility and Understanding Barriers to Care – Module 5 covers the role of social determinants of health in HIV risk, barriers to care, and how cultural humility and trauma-informed care can help underserved populations access PrEP.
- Module 6, PrEP Adherence and Future Innovations in PrEP – Module 6 covers national PrEP guidelines, objective adherence monitoring, challenges that providers may face when implementing PrEP, and strategies for reducing those challenges.
- Module 7, Urine-Based Testing for PrEP Adherence – Module 7 covers strategies to address barriers to PrEP access among underserved and under-resourced populations and future innovations for PrEP care.
- Module 8, TelePrEP Services: Improving PrEP Access – Module 8 covers the benefits, potential challenges, and application of TelePrEP services and models for delivery and implementation.
For more information and to participate in the program, please visit HIVPCPcertification.org.
