Provider Workforce Assessment in a Rural Hepatitis C Epidemic: Implications for Scale-up of Antiviral Therapy. J Prim Care Community Health 2015 Jul;6(3):215-7
Date
11/26/2014Pubmed ID
25422260Pubmed Central ID
PMC4442083DOI
10.1177/2150131914560229Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84990358791 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 22 CitationsAbstract
New recommendations for birth cohort screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the development of new, highly effective antiviral medications are expected to increase the demand for HCV treatment. In the past, antiviral therapy for HCV was almost exclusively prescribed by specialists in the field of gastroenterology and infectious diseases, meaning that people living in rural areas that are underserved by specialists may have poor access to treatment. We investigated the number and geographic distribution of medical providers who actively prescribed direct acting antiviral drugs for hepatitis C in Wisconsin during 2012. Using public health surveillance data and a state-wide prescription drug database, we found that there was 1 treatment provider for every 340 residents known to be living with HCV. However, 51 of 72 Wisconsin counties had no providers who provided HCV treatment in 2012.Scaling up antiviral treatment to address the epidemic of hepatitis C efficiently and equitably will require strategies to increase the number of treatment providers in rural communities. Providing education, training, and support to the primary care workforce serving rural communities should be considered a potentially effective and efficient approach to preventing future HCV-related illness.
Author List
Westergaard RP, Stockman LJ, Hyland HA, Guilfoyle SM, Fangman JJ, Vergeront JMMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Antiviral AgentsHealth Services Accessibility
Hepatitis C
Humans
Oligopeptides
Practice Patterns, Physicians'
Primary Health Care
Proline
Rural Health
Rural Health Services
Wisconsin
