As HIV care continues to evolve, the session “HIV Updates for Nonspecialists and Specialists Alike” at 1:45 p.m. ET, Saturday, Oct. 24, will offer attendees a timely look at new recommendations, emerging challenges and practical approaches that can improve care for people with HIV. The session will bring together experts with perspectives on guideline updates, chronic disease management and maintaining access to care during a period of significant change.
Kristina Crothers, MD, section chief at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and the University of Washington, will discuss managing chronic lung conditions in people with HIV. Alice C. Thornton, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, will focus on the challenges of maintaining HIV care in the current landscape.
Hansel Tookes III, MD, MPH, a physician at the University of Miami, will address “HIV Primary Care in 2026: Innovations and Guideline Updates.” Among the updates he plans to discuss are new statin recommendations for people with HIV, including the guideline panel’s decision to broadly endorse statins for evidence-based prevention rather than limit recommendations to a single agent used in a major clinical trial.
Other topics will include vaccine recommendations and subsequent clarifications following changes affecting national vaccine policy discussions. Dr. Tookes said attendees also will hear about recommendations informed by results from the ANCHOR trial and updated screening guidance.
Beyond specific recommendations, he hopes attendees will come away with a deeper appreciation for innovative models of care that can help reach underserved populations.
He is particularly excited that updated guidance endorses approaches that lower barriers to care, including street medicine, harm reduction programs, syringe services programs and telehealth. “It was exciting to write about all of these new innovative ways and to see them at the top of the guidance,” Dr. Tookes said.
Although the session includes material for experienced HIV clinicians, Dr. Tookes emphasized that HIV treatment remains accessible to nonspecialists as well. “I will always frame that HIV is one of the easiest chronic medical conditions to treat,” he said, adding that nonspecialists can test for, initiate treatment for and manage HIV successfully.
Attendees also can look forward to discussion of broader challenges affecting HIV care delivery, including medication access and the need for continued advocacy on behalf of patients and their communities.
The session will be moderated by Vivek Jain, MD, MAS, FIDSA, IDWeek chair representing the HIV Medicine Association and professor of medicine and infectious diseases at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California-San Francisco, and Raul Macias Gil, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and associate program director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.