Overview
Primary care clinicians play a vital role in engaging and retaining patients living with HIV in care. The need is especially great in rural and underserved communities, where stigma and perceived discrimination can lead to delayed treatment, therapy interruptions, and poor adherence. Fortunately, effective communication can help overcome these barriers to care. This activity, part of a three-part series titled Optimizing HIV Care Conversations in Rural and Underserved Communities: A Whole-Person Approach to Treatment, will showcase best practices for discussing a new HIV diagnosis through a mock clinic encounter. Expert faculty will highlight strategies for explaining the diagnosis, emphasizing the importance of starting treatment promptly, notifying partners, and discussing treatment goals—including U=U—in a compassionate and empathetic way.
After completing this activity, select participants will have the exciting opportunity to reinforce what they learned and further strengthen their HIV care communication skills by interacting with an AI-generated synthetic patient (access details and instructions to be provided via email).
The content for this enduring activity was recorded on August 22, 2025.
This course is brought to you in partnership with our sister company freeCME. Clicking the Add to Cart button will take you to the freeCME website where you can access this course for FREE.
Goals and Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to:
- Employ effective communication methods to foster open patient-clinician communication and reduce HIV-related stigma
Faculty
Paul E. Sax, MD
Clinical Director, Division of Infectious Diseases
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Course Details
FREECME2025-09-30-2
Accreditations
This course is being provided by a Relias LLC strategic partner. Consumption of this course will take place on the partners site and courses provided in this manner are not accredited by Relias LLC.