"People in poor countries desperately need AIDS treatment, but just sending drugs isn't enough. Treatment means knowing how to use the drugs, and that depends on factors that differ from one patient, one clinic, or one country to another," said CHI's director Laurence Peiperl, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCSF.
"For treatment programs to succeed, information needs to go hand in hand with the medications. And why create new training materials from scratch in each location? With limited resources, it's much more efficient to adapt what others have already created. A cooperative, international database of HIV training materials on the internet can go a long way towards bridging the information gap," he added.
I-TECH was established in 2002 as a collaborative effort between the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD, and UCSF. King K. Holmes, MD, PhD, director of the Center for AIDS and STD and professor of medicine at the UW, is the principal investigator.
I-TECH is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau, in collaboration with the CDC's Global AIDS Program. I-TECH supports the ongoing development of health care worker training systems that are locally-determined, optimally resourced, highly responsive and self-sustaining in countries and regions hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.
The UW Center for AIDS and STD was established in 1989 and designated a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for AIDS and STD in 1995. It manages projects in Asia, Africa, Central and South America as well as maintaining cooperative agreements with governmental and non-governmental organizations, universities and hospitals located throughout the world. The Center managed projects totaling approximately $29 million in FY03, including I-TECH, and is expected to administe
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Contact: Jeff Sheehy
jsheehy@psg.ucsf.edu
415-597-8165
University of California - San Francisco
18-Oct-2004