The DOCTOR
Melanie Thompson, MD
Dr. Melanie Thompson is Principal Investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta where she has conducted over 400 studies of HIV, STDs, and viral hepatitis. She is a member and former chair of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research Therapeutics Research Working Group. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) and the Steering Committee of the Ryan White Medical Providers Coalition. She chaired the Antiretroviral Guidelines Panel of the International Antiviral (formerly AIDS) Society-USA (IAS-USA) from 2009-2013, and an international panel on Guidelines for Improving Entry Into and Retention in Care, and Antiretroviral Adherence for Persons with HIV in 2010–2012. She is a member of the Part A Ryan White planning council. Most importantly, she is a medical provider for people with, and at risk for, HIV and viral hepatitis.
The PHARMACIST
Renata Smith, PharmD
Renata Smith, Pharm.D., AAHIVP, is Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the HIV Pharmacy PGY2 Director. She works in the Infectious Diseases clinic at UIC and also in several of the HIV Outreach clinics located in underserved areas of Chicago. The University of Illinois at Chicago provides care to individuals who are uninsured, underinsured, homeless, substance abusers, minorities, or formerly incarcerated from the areas of Chicago with the highest rates of HIV and STIs. Dr. Smith helps train pharmacy residents and pharmacy students in the areas of HIV and outpatient infectious diseases.
The ACTIVIST
Tim Horn
Tim is the HIV Project Director at the Treatment Action Group (TAG), a global HIV, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis research and policy advocacy group based in New York. He is the former editor of AIDSmeds.com and has also worked for the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the AIDS Treatment Data Network, and the PWA Health Group. Tim is also a member of the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition and the Fair Pricing Coalition and serves on several regional, federal, and global advisory boards and planning groups. He is also proud to be a co-author of the “Guidelines for Improving Entry Into and Retention in Care and Antiretroviral Adherence for Persons with HIV,” led by Dr. Thompson and published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2012. He has been living with HIV since the early 1990s.
The ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Enid Vázquez
Positively Aware Associate Editor Enid Vázquez earned her journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first journalism job was reporting for the Hartford Courant, the first newspaper founded in the United States. Enid looks forward each year to updating the drug guide alongside a pharmacist who’s an expert in HIV care. She’s grateful to Renata Smith, PharmD, for volunteering to work on the guide again this year—and to the pharmacists who helped to review and edit the individual drug pages. Enid welcomes comments from readers—those living with HIV as well as providers, case managers, and caregivers—on how to improve the HIV Drug Guide.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Thomas D. Chiampas, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP; Whitney Dickson, PharmD, BCPS; and Farnaz Foolad