Partnership opens new avenues for clinical research and training in HIV, hepatitis C

A new partnership between UBMD Internal Medicine and Evergreen Health to care for patients with HIV and hepatitis C is providing new opportunities for students and medical residents at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

“Evergreen Health has developed an innovative approach to serving this critical segment of the population,” says Thomas A. Russo, professor of medicine, chief of the division of infectious diseases in the Jacobs School and a physician with UBMD Internal Medicine (UBMDIM), part of UBMD Physicians’ Group, the practice plan of the Jacobs School.

“This partnership provides our faculty, students and residents with an opportunity to participate in, and strengthen, Evergreen’s holistic approach to delivering care to those living with HIV and hepatitis C,” Russo says. “It enables our medical students, residents and fellows to learn from this progressive institution that is fulfilling a societal promise to care for these vulnerable populations.”

Under the partnership, Alyssa S. Shon, assistant professor, and Anthony D. Martinez, associate professor, both in the UB Department of Medicine and UBMD IM, have joined Evergreen Health’s primary care team.

This new endeavor, Russo says, also will allow researchers at the Jacobs School to leverage data that Evergreen Health has gathered, with the goal of improving the delivery of care to this important patient population.

“As a National Institutes of Health-designated Clinical and Translational Science site, UB is eager to work closely with Evergreen Health in ways that are mutually beneficial for delivering new treatments to patients, for training purposes and for developing new knowledge that will guide the next generation of treatments for these populations,” he says.

Ray Ganoe, president and chief executive officer of Evergreen Health, says Evergreen’s collaboration with UBMD Internal Medicine “will bring together the region’s leaders in HIV and hepatitis C care as we work toward our common goal: to improve the quality of care we provide to our patients every day.”

Evergreen serves more than 11,000 patients regionally, using a comprehensive approach combining primary care, specialty care, substance user health, mental health and pharmacy services with supportive services like housing, nutrition, care coordination and transportation. Last year, the organization opened a 35,000-square-foot addition to its Buffalo office to accommodate its growing patient base.