Photo Credit: Ivan-balvan

A “data to care” model that included a disease intervention specialist improved re-engagement in HIV care at 90 days compared with the standard of care.

A “data to care” (D2C) model represents a strategy for re-engaging people with HIV who recently disengaged from care, according to results published in JAIDS. Merceditas Villanueva, MD, and colleagues compared the use of a D2C strategy with a disease intervention specialist (DIS) with standard of care (SOC) at 23 HIV clinics, evaluating re-engagement at 90 days, retention in care, and viral suppression by 12 months among 655 participants (DIS, n=333; SOC, n=322). Participants in the DIS arm were more likely to be re-engaged at 90 days (adjusted OR [aOR]=1.42; P=0.045). Independent predictors of re-engagement at 90 days were age (>40; aOR=1.84; P=0.012) and perinatal HIV risk category (aOR=3.19; P=0.03). Predictors of retention at 12 months included re-engagement at 90 days (aOR=10.31; P<0.001), drug injection HIV risk category (aOR=1.83; P=0.032), and detectable HIV-1 RNA before randomization (aOR=0.40; P=0.003). Predictors of viral suppression included re-engagement at 90 days (aOR=2.85; P<0.001), retention in HIV care (aOR=7.07; P<0.001), and detectable HIV-1 RNA before randomization (aOR=0.23; P<0.001).