Providers Have the Power - Indian Country ECHO

Providers Have the Power to End HIV in Indian Country

We can end HIV in Indian Country, and providers have an important role to play. Through preventing new infections, identifying and treating illness early, and taking a syndemic approach , a new era in Indian health is within reach. To obtain free continuing education (CE) to support your efforts, simply:

Text HIV to 94449

We’ll send you 1 message per week for 5 weeks. Each message will include a 10-15-minute video presentation on HIV and PrEP. After completing the series, you will receive CE credit.

Watch the online video series

If you prefer, you can simply watch the 5-video series below. Once you have completed the series, click on the “CE button” and complete a brief form to claim your CE.

Email us at ECHO@npaihb.org with questions or to obtain free technical assistance or HIV-related training for your clinic.

This project was funded by the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund via the Indian Health Service.

Videos

Presenter Bios

CE

Resources

Videos

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PrEP 101

In this 11-minute video, Dr. Jorge Mera, Director of Infectious Disease for Cherokee Nation Health Services, shares vital information on medications to prevent HIV infection and guidance on determining who may benefit.

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PrEP Patient Initiation and Monitoring

In this 10-minute video, Dr. Mera shares useful tips for engaging patients, taking a sexual history, doing an initial PrEP workup, and monitoring patients on PrEP.

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HIV Screening and Diagnosis

In this 13-minute video, Dr. Jonathan Iralu, Chief Clinical Consultant for Infectious Diseases at IHS and seasoned physician at Gallup Indian Medical Center, offers top notch advice on screening patients for HIV, having critical conversations, and establishing swift care for those that test positive.

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HIV Treatment Basics

In this 14-and-a-half-minute video, Dr. Iralu shares valuable tips for treating HIV in primary care, including the basics of physical examination and labs, as well as fundamentals of antiretroviral treatment.

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Substance Use Disorders, HCV, Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV

In this 15-minute video, Dr. Mera shares
details about syndemics and the relationship between HIV, substance use, sexually transmitted infections, and hepatitis C.

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Presenter Bios

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Jorge Mera

MD, FACP

Dr. Jorge Mera is the Director of Infectious Diseases for Cherokee Nation Health Services, the largest tribally operated health care system in the United States. He completed his fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Infectious Diseases. During recent years Jorge’s efforts have been dedicated to organizing the Cherokee Nation HCV elimination program, as well as the HIV/HCV ECHO project. He is also the Director of the HIV clinic since 2012 and the Principal Investigator of the End the HIV Epidemic for the CNHS. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine of the Oklahoma State University Health Science Center and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Jonathan Iralu

MD, FACP, FIDSA

Dr. Iralu, is the Indian Health Service Chief Clinical Consultant for Infectious Diseases. He has a special interest in HIV, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted disease care in rural communities. His research has focused on undifferentiated febrile illness in the American Southwest and on rural HIV care delivery. He has worked at Gallup Indian Medical Center since 1994 and is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity in Boston, Massachusetts.

CE

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Claim CE

Once you have completed the video series, click here to complete a brief form and claim CE credit.

Resources

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HIV Resource Hub

Find the most essential videos, handouts, success stories, and other resources related to HIV in Indian Country here.

PrEP Resource Hub

Find training, clinical guidelines, and other useful materials on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) here.

The Indigenous Syndemic Strategy: Weaving Together HIV, STI, and Viral Hepatitis Plans

To support the development of comprehensive solutions to end the HIV epidemic in Indian Country, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, alongside the Indian Health Service National HIV Program, and other partners, created The Indigenous HIV/AIDS Syndemic Strategy: Weaving Together the National HIV, STI, and Viral Hepatitis Plans.

	Jason Arion Butler is an enrolled member of the Ute Tribe of Fort Duchesne, Utah and is also part Mojave and Cherokee. He resides in Gibson, Idaho with his wife of 22 years, children, and grandchild who are all enrolled members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He graduated from Idaho State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and earned his Master of Science in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University. He has spent the past 5+ years employed by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Tribal Health and Human Services Department, where he spent time serving as the Recovery Service Coordinator for the Four Directions Treatment Center, the manager for the Community Health Representative program, and recently accepted the position of Behavioral Health Manager. He strives to incorporate Native culture, traditions, morals, and values into the healthcare services provided to Native communities, implementing these practices into his work with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and advocating for the reconstruction of healthcare practices nationally. Today he says, “I am loving life and am extremely thankful to have found a career path I love.

	Carrie Sampson-Samuels is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation located in Eastern Oregon. Carrie has an early background in nursing providing patient care in long term and clinical care settings. Carrie then furthered her education in community health and health studies at Portland State University, later advancing her education in healthcare management at Oregon Health and Sciences University while serving in leadership and executive management for a Tribal health organization as the Community Health Director. Carrie has served Tribes from Oregon to Montana and the Treaty 7 Blackfoot Confederacy in Southern Alberta. As the Community Health Aide Project Director for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Carrie has provided leadership, advocacy and project management for expansion for the Behavioral Health Aide and Community Health Aide Program under the umbrella and direction of the Tribal Community Health Provider Project. This work has led to the expansion of Tribal Community Health Providers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Carrie is responsible for leading partnerships with the education institutions, key Tribal partner sites, contract experts and advisory workgroups. This includes development of education infrastructure, education curriculum, recruitment strategies, tools for integration of providers into tribal health organizations, and working with state partners to develop policy and infrastructure for provider reimbursement. Carrie manages and writes multiple grants that support all aspects of this work and provides technical assistance support to the Portland Area CHAP Certification Board. Carrie is the proud mother of 4 daughters and resides on a small ranch on her Tribal homelands.

	Dr. Liu is a generalist OB/GYN at Gallup Indian Medical Center. In addition to her medical degree, she holds a PhD in Health Policy. Among other publications, she served as the chief editor for the 2019 Oxford University Press book: “50 Studies Every Obstetrician and Gynecologist Should Know.” She has formal training in Quality Improvement processes through the Partners Clinical Process Improvement Leadership Program (CPIP), which she utilized to implement emergency contraception at Massachusetts General Hospital. During her six years at Gallup Indian Medical Center she has primary responsibility for preparing and reporting of metrics related to the delivery of obstetric care, and serves on the Continuing Medical Education committee.

	Dr. Hoover is from Chicago, where he grew up and went to medical school, at Rush University, on Chicago’s diverse West Side. He was trained in Urology at Boston Medical Center in Boston’s beautiful South End neighborhood. Dr. Hoover went on to pursue fellowship training in voiding dysfunction and laser prostate surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Hoover is a Board-Certified Urologist, by the American Board of Urology, having achieved this honor in 2018. Dr. Hoover has several peer-reviewed publications, including research studies and medical illustrations. His family is happy to call Gallup home since the end of 2017. In their free time they like to explore New Mexico’s wilderness and go camping. Now that their two girls are growing up, it’s also imperative that we catch Pokemon wherever we go.Dr. Hoover is the only Urologist in McKinley County, New Mexico, and in any of the surrounding counties– it’s just him between Albuquerque and Flagstaff. He’s happy to continue seeing established patients, and is accepting new patients from the entire region. Dr. Hoover believes in communication, candor, and compassion as essential tenets of patient care. Dr. Hoover is an expert in general Urology, male and female voiding dysfunction, kidney stones and kidney stone surgery, BPH and laser prostate surgery, erectile dysfunction, vasectomy, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer. Many of the procedures he do as a Urologist are done in the office including: cystoscopy, vasectomy, urodynamics, treatment foroveractive bladder, and many others. Please call/text or email and let him and his staff know how they can help you.

	Eric Wortmann, MD is the former Director of Emergency Medicine at Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility. Besides patient care, Eric has a deep passion for mentoring aspiring physicians and health care providers. He was the Education Director of Emergency Medicine at Chinle as well as Adjunct Faculty for the US Army teaching Special Forces Medics. He has been a visiting professor of Emergency Medicine in Haiti and has worked in the Dominican Republic since 1989. Eric has a long-time passion as a mid and long-distance running coach. He has lived on Kauai for 30 years. Currently he divides his time between Northern Italy and Hawaii. Recently he was accepted into Doctors without Borders USA and is awaiting his first assignment.

	Corey Detlefs, MD, FACS, is the Trauma Outreach Director and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix