If you are living with HIV, you know first hand that managing your life with this disease can be complicated, as treatment of HIV, while always improving, becomes more complex and more costly. A little over 10 years ago, there were just a few drugs to treat HIV. Today, we have more than 20 FDA-approved antiretrovirals, with two or three new ones approved almost every year.

The breakthroughs in highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) have been miraculous in combating HIV and extending life. The emerging consequences of using these medications however, have included issues like drug-drug interactions, new toxicities, treatment adherence and fatigue, and drug resistance. We are also seeing co-infection with diseases like hepatitis C; possible connections between HAART and cardiovascular disease; and substance abuse epidemics like crystal methamphetamine addiction—all of which threaten to challenge, if not undermine, our best treatment and prevention efforts.

And, as people with HIV live with a more “normal” life expectancy, they have to be aware of the health and lifestyle issues that everyone faces in getting older, especially cardiovascular risk factors like weight, stress levels, exercise, nutrition and smoking cessation. Add the fact that the treatment philosophies have swung like a pendulum back and forth—like the “hit hard and hit early” approach vs. “delay therapy until T helper (CD4+) cells are below 200” approach—and you have a landscape that can be pretty confusing for someone with HIV, whether you’ve been HIV-positive for two or 20 years.

In this day of rapidly evolving treatment options and standards, it is more important than ever that you seek the care of an HIV Specialist™— a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who has attained the designation after passing the credentialing examination offered by the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), an organization of health care providers dedicated to advancing excellence in HIV care. When you are in the care of an AAHIVM HIV Specialist™ (AAHIVS), you know you are working with a provider who is a true partner in your health care, who is up to date on the latest in HIV medicine, and who is committed to his or her continuing education and professional development in HIV-specific health care. HIV Specialists are licensed medical doctors (MD), doctors of osteopathy (DO), nurse practitioners (NP) and physician assistants (PA) who have completed 30 hours of HIV-specific continuing medical education (CME), and see a minimum of 20 HIV patients in their health care setting. They are experts in HIV care.

How do you find an HIV Specialist™, or find out if your provider is currently credentialed? Visit www.AAHIVM.org, and select “Find-A-Provider”. This feature allows you to enter search criteria like city, state and zip, to find out who provides HIV care in your area. You can also search for a particular name, to verify if your provider is credentialed as an HIV Specialist™. Providers who have attained the HIV Specialist™ designation are shown with the credentialed icon near their name in your search result. Complete contact information is also available for these providers, including other information about their services. More information about the American Academy of HIV Medicine and its credentialing program for HIV Specialists™ is available at www.AAHIVM.org.

Dr. Jeffrey Schouten was a board-certified general surgeon who specialized in surgical oncology. From 1982 to 1986 he was a member of the surgical facility at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and then was head of the general surgery division for Kaiser Permanente, Honolulu, Hawaii from 1986 to 1989. Currently he is an assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington and specializes in HIV medicine. He works as a primary care physician at Harborview Medical Center’s Madison Clinic, and is board chair of the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM).