BACKROUND. Disparities in cancer detection, treatment, and outcomes among racial/ethnic minorities and low-income patients are well documented. One way to reduce these disparities is to use patient navigators to address barriers to care.However, little information about optimal characteristics of navigator programs or considerations for those interested in setting up such programs is available. METHODS.The design and implementation of a patient navigator program for underserved cancer patients in an urban, nonacademic community hospital setting is described. The program, which used lay navigators, was conceived as a component of the Urban Latino African American Cancer (ULAAC) Disparities Project in South Los Angeles, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored project to improve cancer care and clinical trial access for minority and low-income patients.RESULTS. Careful initial planning, including input from a community advisory committee, was essential to smooth program implementation. Thirty-one volunteers completed navigator training in the program's first year of operation. Of 135 patients offered navigation services, 75 (56%) accepted, and preliminary feedback from patients, navigators, and providers suggests high levels of satisfaction with navigation.Standardized templates used by navigators and staff to record key information are proving helpful for monitoring quality and outcomes (such as effectiveness in addressing specific barriers to care) and continually improving the program. CONCLUSIONS.The ULAAC program represents a viable model for developing lay navigator programs in community hospitals. Preliminary assessments suggest that the program has a positive effect on minority and low-income cancer patients' experience with care and reduces barriers to care. Additional time and research are needed, however, to fully assess the impact on care and outcomes.

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Use of clinical reminders and provider feedback, activation, and social marketing increased the frequency of HIV testing and the number of new HIV diagnoses. These findings support a multimodal approach toward achieving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's goal of having every American know their HIV status as a matter of routine clinical practice.

Establishing goals of care is important in advance care planning. However, such discussions require a significant time investment on the part of trained personnel and may be overwhelming for the patient. The Go Wish card game was designed to allow patients to consider the importance of common issues at the end of life in a nonconfrontational setting. By sorting through their values in private, patients may present to their provider ready to have a focused conversation about end-of-life care. We evaluated the feasibility of using the Go Wish card game with seriously ill patients in the hospital. Of 133 inpatients approached, 33 (25%) were able to complete the game. The "top 10" values were scored based on frequency and adjusted for rank. The value selected of highest importance by the most subjects was "to be free from pain." Other highly ranked values concerned spirituality, maintaining a sense of self, symptom management, and establishing a strong relationship with health care professionals. Average time to review the patient's rank list after the patient sorted their values in private was 21.8 minutes (range: 6-45 minutes). The rankings from the Go Wish game are similar to those from other surveys of seriously ill patients. Our results suggest that it is feasible to use the Go Wish card game even in the chaotic inpatient setting to obtain an accurate portrayal of the patient's goals of care in a time-efficient manner.

Background Control of viral replication through combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) improves patient health outcomes. Yet many HIV-infected patients have co-morbidities that pose social and clinical barriers to achieving viral suppression. Integration of subspecialty services into HIV primary care may overcome such barriers. Objective Evaluate effect of Integrated HIV Care on suppression of HIV replication. Research Design A retrospective cohort study of HIV patients from five Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities 2000–2006. Subjects Patients with >3 months of follow-up, sufficient baseline HIV severity, on cART. Measures We measured and ranked Integrated Care at the facilities. These rankings were applied to patient visits to form an index of Integrated HIV Care utilization. We evaluated effect of Integrated HIV Care utilization on likelihood of achieving viral suppression while on cART, controlling for demographic and clinical factors using survival analysis. Results The 1,018 HIV-infected patients eligible for analysis had substantial barriers to responding to cART: 93% had co-morbidities with mean 3.2 co-morbidities per patient (S.D.=2.0); 52% achieved viral suppression in median 231 days (S.D.=411.6). Patients visiting clinics which offered hepatitis, psychiatric, psychological and social services in addition to HIV primary care were 3.1 times more likely to achieve viral suppression than patients visiting clinics which offered only HIV primary care (Hazard ratio=3.1, p<.001). Conclusions Patients who visited Integrated HIV Care clinics were more likely to achieve viral suppression while on cART. Future research should investigate which elements of Integrated Care are most associated with viral control and what role provider experience plays in this association.

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Early results support the feasibility and effectiveness of this national VHA teleconsultation and training program for transgender care. Lessons learned from the first group of learners have been applied to two concurrent groups with positive results.

Use of clinical reminders, provider feedback, education and social marketing significantly increased the frequency at which HIV testing is offered and performed in VHA facilities. These findings support a multimodal approach toward achieving the goal of having every American know their HIV status as a matter of routine clinical practice.