Screening for HIV in Health Care Settings: A Guidance Statement From the American College of Physicians and HIV Medicine Association

20 January 2009 | Volume 150 Issue 2

Description: The American College of Physicians (ACP) developed this guidance statement to present the available evidence on screening for HIV in health care settings.

Methods: This guidance statement is derived from an appraisal of available guidelines on screening for HIV. Authors searched the National Guideline Clearinghouse to identify guidelines on screening for HIV in the United States and used the AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation) instrument to evaluate guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Guidance Statement 1: ACP recommends that clinicians adopt routine screening for HIV and encourage patients to be tested.

Guidance Statement 2: ACP recommends that clinicians determine the need for repeat screening on an individual basis.

Author and Article Information

From the American College of Physicians, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and RAND, Santa Monica, California; University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas; and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Note: Guidance statements are "guides" only and may not apply to all patients and all clinical situations. Thus, they are not intended to override clinicians' judgment. All ACP guidance statements are considered automatically withdrawn or invalid 5 years after publication, or once an update has been issued.

Acknowledgment: The authors acknowledge Drs. Bernard Branson, Roger Chou, A. David Paltiel, Rochelle Walensky, and Eran Bendavid and members of HIV Medicine Association's Executive Committee (Drs. Arlene Bardeguez, Michael Saag, Daniel Kuritzkes, and Kathleen Squires) for reviewing and commenting on the guideline.

Grant Support: Grants received: V. Snow (Novo Nordisk, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlantic Philanthropies, United Healthcare Foundation); D.K. Owens (Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health). Financial support for the development of this guideline comes exclusively from the ACP operating budget.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: Any financial or nonfinancial conflict of interest of the group members was declared, discussed, and resolved.

Requests for Single Reprints: Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA, American College of Physicians, 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106; e-mail, aqaseem{at}acponline.org.

Current Author Addresses: Drs. Qaseem and Snow: 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Dr. Shekelle: 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

Dr. Hopkins: 4301 West Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72205.

Dr. Owens: 117 Encina Commons, Stanford, CA 94305.

^* This paper, written by Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA; Vincenza Snow, MD; Paul Shekelle, MD; Robert Hopkins Jr., MD; and Douglas K. Owens, MD, MS, was developed for the Clinical Efficacy Assessment Subcommittee of the American College of Physicians (ACP): Douglas K. Owens, MD, MS (Chair); Donald E. Casey Jr., MD, MPH, MBA; Paul Dallas, MD; Thomas D. Denberg, MD, PhD; Mary Ann Forciea, MD; Robert H. Hopkins Jr., MD; William Rodriguez-Cintron, MD; Paul Shekelle, MD, PhD; and Donna Sweet, MD. Approved by the ACP Board of Regents on 25 October 2008.

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