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University of Virginia (UVA) Health
System doctors have developed an app called Positive Links to help HIV-positive
people remember to take their medicines. Geared to helping recently diagnosed
patients, the app’s name signifies being HIV-positive and linked to care.
Rebecca Dillingham, an assistant professor of medicine at the UVA Health
System, declares, "Obviously, we're not going to fix everybody's life, but
we're hoping to come up with better strategies to better manage the stress both
of living with HIV and also of daily survival."
The app will provide access to HIV
information by helping patients remember their doctor’s advice, schedule doctor
appointments, provide refill reminders, and give personalized daily medication
reminders. The messages will be in the patient's own voice, asking them to
respond when they have taken their medication and sending back a confirmation
message indicating that they have taken it.
Dillingham explained that HIV
patients really cannot miss medication doses, likening it to the difficulty
patients sometimes have in taking a full course of antibiotics for other
conditions. In this instance, a person needs to take HIV medications for the
rest of one’s life. UVA Health System doctors’ research indicates that stress
negatively affects patients’ ability to take care of themselves; therefore, the
app also provides a stress relief strategy that motivates patients to monitor
their stress level and gives them ways to manage it.
Positive Links is targeted specifically
to Virginia’s rural residents who face particular challenges, as the HIV
epidemic is expanding quickest in the rural south, but rural residents live far
from doctors and thus are isolated. Most of these people do not know anyone
else who is HIV-positive, and while the epidemic is growing fast, they do not
know it. Positive Links will connect them with medical care, even if they
cannot get to a doctor. Dillingham stressed that when one is first diagnosed as
HIV-positive, they should see their doctor every week if possible, because it
is a stressful time for patients; however, when they live three to six hours
away from their doctor, they cannot make it to weekly appointments. The app
provides contact with the patient’s provider and the clinic support systems.
UVA doctors will launch the free app
in June, and clinics will distribute it initially. Doctors say that the app
could be adapted for use with other chronic diseases as well in the future.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
