HIV Experts Commissioned to Build Online Education Center

The University’s School of Medicine and Dentistry has been commissioned by the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute to build its Technology Center – a clearinghouse offering ongoing online clinical education related to our ever-evolving understanding of the disease.

This honor – in step with our Medical Center’s 2007-2012 Strategic Plan, which in part capitalizes on our expertise in fields like immunology and infectious disease – taps a strategic collaboration between the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s (CTSI) Biomedical Informatics Program and its Division of Infectious Disease. It also complements our Medical Center’s commitment to quickly bringing new knowledge curbside, where it can improve community health.

Continual clinical education like this is in high demand as our deepening insight into HIV/AIDS unearths more and more potential solutions, better standards for care, and innovative public health initiatives. But these cutting-edge discoveries are powerless to aid patients unless clinical educators can quickly relay them to area health care providers – physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and countless others – who interact with AIDS patients more regularly.

Financed by a $336,140 contract (with the possibility for annual renewal), the Technology Center will serve as a hub for Medical Center-developed multimedia materials related to the disease, including webcasts and podcasts that feature Medical Center experts, the latest clinical evidence and practice guidelines, self assessments for providers to gauge their comprehension, and Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities useful for self-study and accreditation. Other tools will help healthcare providers tailor the latest recommendations to the unique needs of individual patients – an important step toward signature care.

The Technology Center has been in operation since July, and new online resources for HIV clinical education will be available in September. The Technology Center is led by: Dongwen Wang, Ph.D., co-director of the Biomedical Informatics Program, who will serve as the center’s administrative director, and Amneris E. Luque, M.D., medical director of the Medical Center’s AIDS Center, who will serve as the center’s medical director. Other team members include Thomas Della Porta, Michael Hazard, Philip Ng and Keith Bourgeois.

To learn more about the new Technology Center or to access Clinical Education materials, please contact Thomas Della Porta at (585) 275-7655.