Center for Biomedical and Minority Health Research

Texas Southern University, Houston TX

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Project Summary African Americans comprise a high burden of all new HIV diagnoses in Houston, Texas. To reduce new cases of HIV, it is crucial to increase accessibility to HIV testing, risk assessment and reduction counseling, and linkage to care, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or link to HIV care. Community pharmacists are highly accessible in terms of locations and extended business hours. Community pharmacies are often perceived as non-stigmatized environments, have private space for encounters, and can reach poor or racial minority neighborhoods. Pharmacists can provide point-of-care testing waiver by Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendment and medication prescribing under collaborative practice agreements. The agreements lay the groundwork for expanding pharmacy-based HIV testing and PrEP services. African American communities in the South are particularly burdened due to poor healthcare access and heightened stigma. Texas Southern University (TSU) is one of the nation's largest historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and the only HBCU in the State of Texas offering a pharmacy program. Each year, there are a large number of African American healthcare professionals graduate. TSU has established unparalleled trust within the African American community, with a longstanding history of successfully executing community engagement and outreach activities and productive partnerships with various community-based organizations. Therefore, we propose the Pharmacists Conquering HIV and Maximizing PrEP (CHAMP) program in collaboration with Texas Developmental Center for AIDS Research, the Houston AIDS Education and Training Center, and the Texas Implementation Science Hub to End HIV. We aim to develop a pharmacy-led HIV testing and prevention services model to overcome the current barrier to access to care for African American community. We proposed the following aims: Aim 1: Identify barriers and facilitators to pharmacy-led HIV testing and PrEP; Aim 2: Develop and pilot pharmacy-led HIV testing and PrEP in a pharmacy serving predominately low-income African American communities with high HIV prevalence. We anticipate that completing these aims will identify potential barriers and facilitators of implementing pharmacy-based HIV testing and PrEP in African American Communities. The results of this study will inform future studies to develop implementation and dissemination strategies to increase HIV testing and PrEP accessibility for African Americans throughout the urban area of Houston.