UCSF - Ethiopia Fitun Warmline

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Investigator: Ronald Goldschmidt, MD
Sponsor: American International Health Alliance (AIHA)

Location(s): Ethiopia

Description

Health care professionals confront many complex questions about HIV treatment and care. In Ethiopia, limited resources, inadequate communication infrastructure, and lack of continuing education opportunities often prevent health care professionals from staying up-to-date on the latest information about HIV/AIDS. To address these challenges ARC established the Fitun Warmline - a toll-free telephone information service devoted to answering questions from health care professionals about HIV/AIDS care and treatment. Health care professionals across Ethiopia can use the Fitun Warmline to get quick, accurate, and up-to-date answers to their questions with a single call.

The Warmline consists of a multidisciplinary team of HIV/AIDS experts, including physicians, nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists, public health specialists, counselors and psychiatrists. The Warmline team brings together practical knowledge and experience with the latest research and technical information on care, treatment and diagnostics. The Warmline staff can either answer questions immediately, or will return the call after conducting additional research - usually within 2 hours.  When necessary, the Warmline will also supply documentation to support the answer provided. Challenging cases are forwarded to senior HIV experts in Addis Ababa University (AAU) and other organizations such as the University of California San Francisco, UCSF – National HIV/AIDS Clinicians Consultation Center, NCCS.