Innovative platform bridges the gap between OUD treatment and HIV prevention

People with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at increased risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While there are effective interventions that can substantially reduce HIV incidence and opioid overdose, like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), many patients still face barriers to accessing and staying engaged in care.

At Boston Medical Center (BMC), Alyssa Tilhou, MD, PhD, vice chair for research in family medicine, is working to change that through a new care delivery platform designed to make evidence-based treatment easier to access and sustain.

Drawing on her experience as an addiction medicine specialist, Dr. Tilhou's proposed innovative approach, Leveraging Informatics for Navigation and Knowledge (LINK), uses electronic health record (EHR) data paired with both real-time outreach to patients and support to clinicians to ensure that all patients are given the opportunity to benefit from comprehensive addiction and HIV prevention services when they present for care. Dr. Tilhou's work has earned her one of the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) prestigious Avenir Awards, supporting exceptionally innovative early-career researchers.

I'm trying to break out of the traditional ways that we deliver healthcare in order to make getting care as easy as possible for people. People shouldn't have to work hard to get treatment that works."

Dr. Alyssa Tilhou, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Through timely, tailored, telemedicine outreach by a highly trained clinical team, the platform will proactively connect patients to care, shifting the burden of engagement from patients to the health system itself. The project will also work with patients and providers to design workflows that are practical, acceptable, and support long-term engagement and trust. By intentionally grounding the project in system‑level informatics, LINK is designed to be scalable and adaptable, with the potential to be implemented in health systems beyond BMC.

"You never know exactly what moment is going to be the moment when someone is ready to make a big change," says Dr. Tilhou. "By creating more opportunities for conversation, we can better meet patients where they are and support them when they're ready."

An important goal of the initiative is to connect patients to comprehensive longitudinal primary care. Patients will be referred to primary care providers for ongoing support, with additional training to help providers feel confident delivering high-quality, patient-centered care for both OUD and HIV.

Through the Avenir Award, Dr. Tilhou will advance new approaches to integrating HIV prevention and OUD treatment into routine clinical care, with the potential to improve patient outcomes and inform best practices for health systems nationwide.

"This is a remarkable accomplishment and represents the outstanding work being done by Dr. Tilhou to improve the lives of our patients experiencing opioid use disorder," said Megan Bair-Merritt, MD, MSCE, Chief Scientific Officer of BMC Health System.