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. 2023 Nov;37(11):517-524.
doi: 10.1089/apc.2023.0185.

A Community-Based Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Telehealth Program Focused on Latinx Sexual Minority Men

Elí A Andrade  1   2 , Gabriela Betancourt  3 , Gustavo Morales  3 , Omar Zapata  4 , Lissette Marrero  4 , Sage Rivera  5 , Eric Nieves  1 , Carolina Miranda  1 , Chanelle Diaz  1 , Robert Beil  1 , Viraj V Patel  1 , Jonathan Ross  1
Affiliations

A Community-Based Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Telehealth Program Focused on Latinx Sexual Minority Men

Elí A Andrade et al. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Latinx sexual minority men (LSMM) face multilevel barriers to accessing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). To address these barriers, we designed and implemented community-based organization (CBO)-PrEP, a collaborative community-based telehealth PrEP program for LSMM. We designed this PrEP delivery program through a collaborative process involving staff from local CBOs and a primary care-based HIV prevention program. Staff met weekly over a 3-month period to establish protocols for referrals, obtaining insurance coverage, and navigation to appointments and laboratory testing. To assess feasibility, we extracted electronic medical record data including demographics and clinical outcomes of PrEP care. Between December 2020 and May 2023, 102 individuals were referred to CBO-PrEP of which 85 had Hispanic/Latino as their ethnicity in their medical records; out of 102 individuals, 72 (70.6%) were scheduled for an initial appointment. Out of 72 individuals scheduled for an appointment, 58 (80.6%) were seen by a health care provider a median of 7.5 days after referral [interquartile range (IQR), 2-19]; 48 (82.6%) of initial appointments were through telemedicine, 10 (17.2%) were seen in person. Of the 48 patients who had a telehealth appointment, 36 (75%) underwent initial laboratory testing and 42 (87.5) were prescribed PrEP; all 10 patients who were seen in person underwent laboratory testing and were prescribed PrEP. PrEP prescriptions were received in a median of 17.5 days (IQR 4.5-33.5) after referral. CBO-PrEP successfully engaged LSMM, a population that is often hard to reach. Expanding collaborative approaches with CBOs could have a significant impact on improving PrEP uptake for LSMM and other priority populations.

Keywords: Latino; community-based organization; implementation science; men who have sex with men; pre-exposure prophylaxis.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
CBO-pre-exposure prophylaxis process for patients referred from a CBO site to a Montefiore primary care HIV prevention clinic. CBO, community-based organization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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