Making It Stick: Considerations & Case Studies for Implementation of Long-Acting Antiretroviral Therapy

Making It Stick: Considerations & Case Studies for Implementation of Long-Acting Antiretroviral Therapy

Support for this activity has been made possible through educational grants from Gilead Sciences and Merck.

Webinar Highlights:

The advent of long-acting injectable (LAI) antiretroviral therapy (ART) is rapidly transforming the landscape of care and treatment for persons with HIV (PWH). LAI ART provides a long-awaited alternative to, and has several advantages over, daily oral pills, such as the potential to reduce pill fatigue, burden, or intolerance and help overcome HIV-related stigma and fear of disclosure. However, there are key clinical considerations required to use this novel therapy and implementation of LAI ART in the clinic has been challenging..

Join this engaging, case-based webinar designed to enhance your clinical and functional knowledge of using and implementing long-acting ART options for HIV treatment in your clinic. You’ll gain practical strategies to:

• Select, initiate and monitor use of LAI ART agents based on key criteria for safety and efficacy
• Incorporate frameworks for considering LAI ART use in PWH with adherence challenges and/or viremia
• Guide strategies for coordinating LAI ART use and implementation in your clinic/ health system.

Stay up to date with evolving best practices and learn how to align your approach with current treatment guidelines and supportive real-world data on using LAI ART in PWH for improved individual and public health outcomes. This session also emphasizes team-based, interprofessional care, offering actionable insights to enhance collaboration, care coordination, and patient outcomes across the HIV care continuum.

Learning Objectives:

• Review clinical data and guidelines-based recommendations supporting use of long-acting injectable (LAI) antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV treatment.
• Evaluate key patient-, clinic- and systems-level considerations for the successful use and implementation of currently available long-acting ART options.
• Identify strategies for collaborating with your team to address barriers and enhance facilitators of LAI ART use and implementation for optimized clinical and public health outcomes.

What You Can Expect:

1. Practical Application of the Science: Our expert faculty educators will guide you through this engaging and informative program, and offer suggestions on how you can apply best practices to patient care.
2. Patient-Centered Care: Learn from faculty who are directly involved in patient care about strategies for providing compassionate care that addresses individuals’ unique needs and challenges.
3. Team Focused: Explore how HIV clinicians from multiple professions are collaborating to optimize patient care.

By participating, you’ll not only enhance your professional development but also be better prepared to contribute as an HIV team member toward better healthcare outcomes for your patients.

Activity Faculty:

Lauren F. Collins, MD, MSc Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases Emory University School of Medicine Grady Ponce de Leon Center	Eric Farmer, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP HIV Clinical Pharmacist Indiana University Health LifeCare Clinic Methodist Hospital
Lauren F. Collins, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. She attends inpatient ID/HIV services at Grady Memorial Hospital and is a primary care physician at the Grady Ponce de Leon Center in the women’s clinic. Since 2021, she has served as the Medical Director of the Grady Ponce Long-acting Antiretroviral Therapy Program. Dr. Collins’s clinical and research interests focus on improving the care and outcomes of persons with HIV across the lifespan, and in particular, women and those affected by the Southern HIV/AIDS epidemic. In her research, she studies the development and associated risk factors of aging-related multimorbidity with an emphasis on sex differences and overall goal of optimizing comorbidity screening and prevention strategies in this population. She is also interested in leveraging long-acting antiretroviral therapy as a tool to help end the HIV Epidemic through mixed methods and implementation science research. Dr. Collins is a co-investigator of multiple NIH-funded prospectively-enrolled longitudinal observational cohort studies centered on evaluating health priorities for women with and without HIV, including the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS), the Study of Treatment And Reproductive Outcomes (STAR), and the Emory Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences. Her comorbidity work is supported by a K23 Award from the National Institute on Aging and she also serves as the PI of a CDC U01 “A Community-based Assessment of Preferences for Long-Acting Antiretroviral Therapy Options Among Black Women across Six Ending the HIV Epidemic Jurisdictions in the South.”	Eric Farmer, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP graduated from Butler University with his Doctor of Pharmacy. He then completed an ASHP-accredited PGY1 pharmacy residency at Eskenazi Health (formerly Wishard Health Services) in Indianapolis, Indiana and subsequently an ASHP-accredited PGY2 HIV specialty pharmacy residency at the Center for HIV/AIDS Care and Research at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Farmer is currently an HIV clinical pharmacist at the Indiana University Health LifeCare Clinic located at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. At LifeCare, Dr. Farmer provides pharmacy services that include medication adherence counseling and patient education, drug information services, medication procurement, medication therapy management, and medical care coordination services. He currently serves as a clinical preceptor for APPE students, PGY1 residents, and PGY2 residents at IU Health as well as serves as clinical faculty for the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center. Dr. Farmer is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Academy of HIV Medicine.

Target Audience:

Accreditation and Credit Designation

In support of improving patient care, American Academy of CME, Inc. is Jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Physicians:

American Academy of CME, Inc., designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

NPs and Nurses:

American Academy of CME, Inc., designates this educational activity for 1.0 ANCC contact hours (0.8 pharmacotherapeutic contact hours).

California
Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP16993 for 1.0 contact hours.

Physician Assistants:

American Academy of CME, Inc. has been authorized by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 1.0 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. Approval is valid until December 18, 2026. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Pharmacists:

This activity provides 1.0 ACPE contact hours (0.1 CEUs) of continuing education credit. Universal Activity Number:  JA4008191-0000-25-063-H02-P, Knowledge.

All other members of the care team will receive a certificate of participation.

Disclosures

According to the disclosure policy of the Academy, all faculty, planning committee members, editors, managers and other individuals who are in a position to control content are required to disclose any relationships with any ineligible company(ies). The existence of these relationships is not viewed as implying bias or decreasing the value of the activity. Clinical content has been reviewed for fair balance and scientific objectivity, and all of the relevant financial relationships listed for these individuals have been mitigated.

Faculty Educator/Planner Disclosures

Lauren Collins, MD, MSc: No relevant financial relationships to disclose
Eric Farmer, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP: External Speaker’s Bureau for Viiv Healthcare; Advisory Board: Merck*

Planning Team Disclosures:

Jonathan Colasanti, MD; Courtney Fletcher, PharmD; Jose Gutierrez, PhD, FNP-BC; Margaret Hoffman-Terry, MD, FACP, AAHIVS; John JD Juchniewicz, MCIS, CHCP, FACEHP; H. Nina Kim, MD, MS; Natalie Kirkwood, RN, BSN, JD; Daiquiri Y. Robinson, Med, Matthew Young: No relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Christopher Evans, MD: Grant/Research Support: ViiV Healthcare
William R. Short, MD, MPH: Advisory Board/Consultant – ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences; Grant/Research Support – Gilead Sciences
Sarah Smith, MHS, PA-C, AAHIVS: Advisory Board/Consultant: ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Janssen*; Speaker’s Bureau: ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Janssen*
*Relationship has ended

This activity does include information about off-label uses of approved agents and/or investigational agents.

The opinions expressed in this accredited continuing education activity are those of the faculty, and do not represent those of the Academy/ACTHIV® Institute. This educational activity is intended as a supplement to existing knowledge, published information, and practice guidelines. Learners should appraise the information presented critically, and draw conclusions only after careful consideration of all available scientific information.

Implicit Bias

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that influence our thoughts, judgements, decisions, and actions without our awareness. Everyone is susceptible to implicit bias, even clinicians. In healthcare, implicit biases can have a significant impact on the quality of care an individual receives. These biases can be both favorable and unfavorable, and are activated involuntarily without an individual’s awareness or intentional control.

Studies have indicated that healthcare providers’ incorrect perceptions can impact providers’ communications and clinical decision-making contributing to disparities in clinical outcomes. Addressing implicit biases in healthcare is critical to improving health outcomes and promoting health equity for all patients. Patient-centered care can reduce the impact of implicit bias, by treating each patient as a unique individual who may or may not hold beliefs associated with their backgrounds and circumstances. In addition, recognizing implicit bias in one’s own practice using techniques such as self-reflection and mindful clinical decision-making can ensure more equitable and effective care to all patients.

Over the past several decades, cognitive science research has demonstrated human behavior, beliefs and attitudes are shaped by automatic and unconscious cognitive processes. The healthcare profession is devoting greater attention to how these automatic and unconscious processes impact care including: (1) preferential treatment toward or against specific patient populations causing healthcare inequities, (2) influence patient-provider communications leading to misunderstandings and mistrust, and (3) impact access to healthcare and affect treatment decisions resulting in misdiagnosis, delays in treatment and specialty referrals and poor pain management.

Considering one might have unconscious biases and exploring them may be uncomfortable because the very idea that they exist may conflict with how clinicians perceive themselves. It is only by becoming aware of one’s unconscious biases that members of the healthcare team can take steps to mitigate them to ensure all their patients are treated receive quality healthcare. For more information on strategies to reduce implicit bias, visit: https://www.ihi.org/library/blog/how-reduce-implicit-bias

Instructions on How to Receive Credit

There are no fees to participate in the activity. Participants must review the activity information including the learning objectives and disclosure statements, as well as the content of the activity. To receive CME/CE credit for your participation, please complete the post-assessment and program evaluation. Your certificate will be available for printing immediately.

Privacy and Contact

For more information about the American Academy of CME privacy policy, please access http://www.academycme.org/privacy.htm  For any questions, please contact: [email protected].

Hardware/Software Requirements

This program should be viewed at a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher using current versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. A high-speed Internet connection is recommended.

Copyright

© 2025. This accredited continuing education activity is held as copyrighted © by American Academy of CME. Through this notice, permission is granted for its use for educational purposes only. These materials may not be used, in whole or in part, for any commercial purposes without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner(s).