The Adherence to HIV Treatment Regimens: Recommendations for Best Practices Project
American Public Health Association
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Purpose
This excerpt from the site itself explains its purpose:
Best Practices Report Available
The 2004 Adherence to HIV Treatment Regimens: Recommendations for Best Practices Report can be downloaded from the site in PDF format.
Links
A page of links to other information and organizations dealing with adherence to HIV treatment is also available.
American Public Health Association Membership & Web Site Access
Access to certain portions of the American Public Health Association web site requires membership in The American Public Health Association (general membership costs begin at $160 although some subsidized memberships are available). As far as I can determine, none of the material pertinent to the Best Practices Project is located in the members-only section.
Commentary
Given that no other group has been more active and invested in working with adherence than those involved in the treatment of HIV, the existence of this project and especially its online presence is hardly surprising and, given the amount of data generated and the shifts in conceptualizing HIV treatment adherence, the notion of a readily available online reference to current adherence protocols and thought holds much promise.
That said, it appears that this potential is not being realized. The site, which appears to have been established in April 2002, is self-described as a “Web-based living document.” Further, the project’s vision was to be fulfilled, according to a description rendered at the 2004 American Public Health Association 131st Annual Meeting thusly,
Contents will be updated several times annually with journal reviews, key articles, exemplary guidelines, content from professional conferences, and models from the management of related treatments, such as directly observed therapy for tuberculosis and methadone therapy for substance abuse.1
Nonetheless, the only materials I find are those listed in the first portions of this post (all of which were published in 2004 or earlier) and two “Conference Updates” (Barcelona 2002 & Paris 2003).
Further, reviews of historic views of the site indicate minimal changes2 since its inception. The most recent update of any sort listed at the Internet Archive WayBack Machine is 9 Feb 2005.
While I cannot determine the utilization of this particular page since it is subsumed under the American Public Health Association web site, I was surprised to discover it only in the past week although I’ve monitored medical compliance issues on the net for several years. And, a Google search for the official name, “Adherence to HIV Treatment Regimens: Recommendations for Best Practices” calls up only 19 hits. (According to the counter on this page, I was the only the 7339th visitor, but it appears that the site counter was stuck at “2361″ for at least a year or two.)
I have emailed the American Public Health Association about the status of this project but have received no response thus far.
This commentary is most accurately read as a lamentation rather than a criticism. It seems intuitively clear that realizing the vision of this project would be a major service to researchers and clinicians and it is sad that, from all appearances, this is not currently a high priority.
Footnotes
- Highlights of the American Public Health Association 131st Annual Meeting: Facilitators and Barriers to Changing Health Behaviors [back]
- E.g., minor cosmetic alterations, a different listing of download links, the addition of the conference updates [back]