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ECHO Center at IUPUI launches first HIV program to improve access to treatment

For Immediate Release Feb 21, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health ECHO Center at IUPUI has launched its first program focusing on HIV education, prevention and treatment in Indiana.

The program is free and open to all members of the medical profession.

The school uses the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, or ECHO, model to create a network of clinical practice and faculty expertise to help clinicians provide evidence-based, culturally competent and comprehensive care to a diverse patient population.

HIV ECHO Team at IUPUI
The ECHO Center team is launching an innovative program to provide HIV treatment throughout Indiana.

The curriculum includes HIV screening, treatment, pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis, diagnosing and managing opportunistic infections, and treating patients with co-morbid medical conditions.

“With advances in treatment, people living with HIV have the opportunity to live full and healthy lives,” said Dr. Joan Duwve, associate dean for practice at the Fairbanks School of Public Health. “Unfortunately, accessing treatment too often requires seeing a specialist miles away from home. We are training providers throughout Indiana because we know that removing barriers to care increases the odds that people will get treatment. And that is so important for HIV, because treatment is prevention.

“Simply stated, better access to HIV treatment means healthier Hoosiers.”

HIV ECHO clinic sessions are 90 minutes and are offered twice a month. Medical professionals – including but not limited to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, community health workers, pharmacists and emergency medical technicians – are invited to attend.

In addition to the HIV ECHO, the ECHO Center also offers a Hepatitis C ECHO and an LGBTQ+ ECHO. It is one of only two institutions in the United States offering such a program addressing issues specific to the LGBTQ+ community.

Register online for an upcoming ECHO.

Non-GC funded addictions-related work:

This program reflects IU’s extensive expertise and research regarding addictions. To build on this area of strength, IU President Michael McRobbie, along with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and IU Health President and CEO Dennis Murphy, announced the Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge initiative in October 2017. This Grand Challenge initiative engages a broad array of IU’s world-class faculty, as well as IU’s business, nonprofit and government partners. The initiative aims to implement a collaborative, applied and comprehensive plan to reduce deaths from addiction, ease the burden of drug addiction on Hoosier communities and improve health and economic outcomes. This statewide initiative is one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive state-based responses to the opioid addiction crisis—and the largest led by a university.

Media Contact

Communication Specialist – Project ECHO

Joey Amato

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