On-Line Courses for Physicians: HIV & the Elderly

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): About 11% of all HIV/AIDS cases in the United States occur among people age 50 and older. As our population ages, families are changing through divorce and widowhood, creating a greater chance that more people infected with HIV will go undiagnosed, placing support systems at risk. Age does not make people less susceptible to HIV infection, in many cases, age makes people more at risk. Older generations not only have physiological changes making them more susceptible to infection, but socio-culturally, older adults have not been socialized to practice safe sex consistently. There is a misunderstanding that older people are not able to contract HIV Primary care doctors are often the first line of defense in recognizing the symptoms of HIV/AIDS, therefore it is crucial that there are appealing resources (through CME credits) available to offer this information to physicians and other primary care specialists. This Phase I proposal seeks to develop and evaluate on-line courses for physicians regarding HIV, the elderly and associated cognitive deficits Efficacy tests will be conducted to ensure that participants are learning the information, and that they find it useful and satisfying. Phase II will develop and evaluate a series of on-line courses for CME credits regarding HIV & the elderly. Courses will focus on issues of cultural competence with special curriculum content on African American and Hispanic elderly. Commercialization plans include utilizing the current host (HIVIniste com), the American Academy of Family Practice, and the national network of Geriatric Education Centers. Using this target market, we currently have access to over 160,000 physicians who have previously taken CME courses in geriatric medicine. We can further expand to other primary care specialists (e.g., nurse practitioners), interested physicians, as well as to Spanish speaking physicians when courses are translated in Phase II.