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Rapid
HIV/AIDS
Testing Initiative
Hailed as a
Model Program
By Patricia M. Hansen
When the State of New Jersey calls and asks for help, who can say no? Not the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and certainly not Professor Evan M. Cadoff, MD, or Associate Professor Eugene G. Martin, PhD. Dr. Cadoff and Dr. Martin oversee the Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Program that recently won a prestigious ASTHO (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials) Vision Award for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Division of HIV/AIDS Services.
Along with Sindy Paul, MD, medical director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Services, Dr. Cadoff and Dr. Martin have taken a fledgling program statewide. Perhaps even more importantly, due to this award, the program may become a model for other states to duplicate, helping to save countless numbers of lives.
The citation for the ASTHO award, which was presented at the annual meeting of state and territorial health officials, reads in part, “This innovative program will serve as an outstanding example to the public health community and will encourage replication of such initiatives in other states.”
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Eugene G. Martin, PhD, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine (left), and Evan M. Cadoff, MD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, oversee the Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Program that recently won a prestigious ASTHO (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials) Vision Award for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Division of HIV/AIDS Services. |
It was only three years ago, in November 2003, when rapid HIV/AIDS testing became available in New Jersey. The advantages of rapid testing are obvious: instead of waiting a week or more for test results, patients could have results in as little as 20 minutes. “The new test was dramatically better. We saw a 25 percent increase in testing during the very first year,” says Dr. Cadoff.
Because of state regulations designed to protect New Jersey’s citizens from quality problems at clinical laboratories, state officials needed help with the oversight and implementation of the proposed program. “That is when the state asked for help. They needed a licensed site, and we already had one in place at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,” Dr. Cadoff adds.
That site became one of six in the state, funded by grants, to offer confidential, free rapid HIV/AIDS testing. The success of this program prompted state officials to approach the doctors again, this time for help in expanding the program statewide.
“Today every county in New Jersey is covered,” explains Dr. Martin. “There are now 106 sites licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services that provide this test.”