AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETC) Program

The purpose of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) AETC Program is to increase and support a health care workforce capable of providing HIV prevention and care and treatment to people with or at-risk of HIV. Program goals include: Goal 1: Expand the number of health care team members providing HIV care and prevention services. Goal 2: Expand the ability of health care team members to provide effective HIV care and prevention services. Goal 3: Improve health equity by integrating HIV care and prevention in primary care and other health care settings that provide services to underserved populations. Goal 4: Enhance the capacity of the RWHAP AETC Program to train health care team members to serve people at risk for or with HIV. The purposes of this funding are to: (1) Train health care personnel, including practitioners in programs under title XXVI of the Public Health Service Act and other community providers, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of HIV disease, including the prevention of perinatal transmission of the disease, measures for the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections, and (as applicable to the type of health professional involved) prenatal and other gynecological care for women with HIV; (2) Train the faculty of schools of, and graduate departments or programs of, medicine, nursing, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, public health, allied health, and mental health practice to teach health professions students to provide for the health care needs of individuals with HIV; (3) Develop and disseminate curricula and resource materials relating to the care and treatment of individuals with HIV and the prevention among individuals at risk of contracting HIV; and (4) Develop protocols for the medical care of women with HIV, including prenatal and other gynecological care for such women. The Program is comprised of several components: Regional AETCs, National Clinician Consultation Center, National AETC Support Center, National HIV Curriculum, National HIV Curriculum Integration Projects, and HIV Clinical Training Tracks in Primary Residency Care Programs.