New Center to Promote Quality VA Care for HIV

Washington, D.C. — The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching a new Center for Quality Management in HIV Care, a national working laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., designed to promote innovation and improvement in the care of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

Newly named as director of the VA center is Dr. Sophia Chang, former director of the HIV/AIDS program for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Dr. Chang has been in the forefront of national initiatives involving HIV management. She previously was director of AIDS Health Services for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and immediately prior to the Kaiser Foundation post had served as medical director of the managed care plan for Medicaid recipients, the San Francisco Health Plan.

“Our hope is that the Center for Quality Management in HIV Care will catalyze innovation, using data from VA’s treatment experience and outcome measures to help better manage patients and improve systems of care,” said VA’s Acting Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Thomas L. Garthwaite. “With Dr. Chang’s leadership and her experience with health services research, we expect to disseminate new information so VA will continue to be a leader in setting the rapidly changing clinical standards for HIV care in the United States.”

In part, the center will use the VA’s HIV registry to assess and improve clinical care provided to HIV patients around the country. The HIV registry is the largest database of its kind in the world. VA maintains HIV patient anonymity while tracking utilization of medical services, including pharmaceuticals, as well as patient outcomes.

VA is the largest single provider of HIV services in the country, having served more than 17,000 persons with HIV in 1998 alone.

The new national center in Palo Alto reports to VA’s AIDS Service in Washington, D.C., headed by Dr. Lawrence Deyton. It will facilitate communication between VA headquarters and field staff involved in providing care, ranging from facilities’ AIDS coordinators to pharmacy benefits managers. Also, it is expected to involve private industry in assessing effectiveness of new technologies, such as drug therapies, diagnostic tests or information systems.

The center has both full-time and collateral duty staff members, including two physicians, a pharmacist, two nurse quality managers and additional personnel in health services research, data analysis and administrative support.

The Palo Alto location was chosen in part with an expectation that the center will collaborate with university, government, and community groups, such as the Stanford University-VA HIV Integrated Program, the University of California at San Francisco and community advocacy organizations.