Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) today unveiled a novel Web-based technology to rapidly instruct health care providers throughout New York State about HIV diagnosis and prevention.
Developed by a team from St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan and Streamedtech with a grant from the DOH’s AIDS Institute, the HIV/AIDS widget will be downloaded to computers in Health Care facilities across the state. This easy desktop computer program will allow healthcare providers to download the widget to conveniently access medical information for treating patients who have been exposed to HIV.
A widget, short for a “window gadget,” is a graphic program that interacts with computer-stored information. One important feature of widget technology is that the desktop program is able to be updated every time a user accesses the Internet. Changes made to the program on the DOH server can then be pushed out to all users to ensure the widget provides the most up-to-date information.
“As the first-ever HIV educational widget designed for healthcare providers, the widget’s simplicity and power gives the DOH the ability to rapidly reach thousands of medical providers throughout New York State and teach them to diagnose and prevent HIV infection,” said Dr. Antonio Urbina, medical director of St. Vincent’s HIV/AIDS training and education. “With the same technology and different information, the widget can also be used to teach about infectious diseases or a broad variety of other health concerns.”
The HIV/AIDS widget instructs healthcare providers on when to test for the virus and how to administer a highly effective 28-day course of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV infection from taking hold in the patient who has recently experienced a high risk exposure to HIV.
“I congratulate St. Vincent’s on creating this educational tool to provide state-of-the-art communication to educate the medical community about HIV/AIDS post-exposure prevention and treatment,” said New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D. “This Web-based computer program will provide invaluable support and instruction to health care providers to ensure that patients receive the most up-to-date care.”
The widget was created by Drs. Urbina and Paul Galatowitsch, of the HIV/AIDS education and training program at St. Vincent’s Comprehensive HIV Center in Manhattan.
For more than 20 years, “St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan has been at the forefront of treating HIV and AIDS for more than 20 years, and the development and launch of the HIV/AIDS widget is a continuation of that expertise and leadership in the fight against this disease,” said Henry J. Amoroso, president and CEO of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers. “We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of our staff.”