SUNY Downstate Awarded Grant to Train Medical Residents in HIV/AIDS Care
Oct 18, 2011
SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s Special Treatment and Research (STAR) Program has been awarded $450,000 over three years to expand opportunities to train physician residents in HIV/AIDS care and treatment. This highly competitive award will fund the development of an innovative HIV/primary care track within SUNY Downstate’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. The grant comes from the AIDS Education and Training Center Program of the federal Health Resources Services Administration’s HIV/AIDS Bureau, and is one of only three such grants to be funded by HRSA.
Jack DeHovitz, MD, MPH, distinguished service professor of medicine and director of the STAR Health Center said, “The overall supply of HIV experienced providers in New York State and the nation has been shrinking over time as current HIV providers retire, and too few health care providers are adequately trained and experienced in providing the care these patients need.” He continued, “This workforce trend, also reflected in Brooklyn, is further complicated as HIV becomes a complex, chronic, and multisystem disease requiring multidisciplinary expertise. We anticipate that the HIV residency training program developed through this award will help to alleviate the increasing shortages of HIV experienced providers.” Dr. DeHovitz is principal investigator on the award.
Downstate’s Internal Medicine Residency Program is fully accredited and housed within the Department of Medicine. Directed by Jeanne Macrae, MD, associate professor of medicine, it offers tracks in categorical medicine, combined medicine and emergency medicine, and preliminary medicine. The new award will support developmental work toward expanding the existing residency program to include an HIV-focused fourth residency track, with the goal of training four residents per year.
The STAR Health Center at SUNY Downstate offers specialized care for HIV disease, hepatitis C infection, and substance abuse to the people of Central Brooklyn.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.