JPHMP Editor-in-chief Lloyd Novick speaks with James Tesoriero and Rachel Newport about the Impact of a PrEP Aware Week Campaign on PrEP Prescription Fills in New York State.

In this episode of the Editor’s Podcast, I speak with two authors of a new article in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice who describe an intervention shown to increase prescription fills for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a key tool in state and national efforts to end AIDS as an epidemic. Importantly, they found that the benefits of the intervention were realized across sex, region, and racial and ethnic subgroups and that it should be easily replicable across jurisdictions.

The title of the article is “Assessing the Impact of a PrEP Aware Week Campaign on PrEP Prescription Fills in NYS,” which appears in our September 2022 issue. Authors of the article describe how the New York State (NYS) Department of Health AIDS Institute engaged stakeholders across the state to participate in its first “PrEP Aware Week,” which sought to increase the knowledge, interest, and number of PrEP prescriptions filled across NYS. PrEP Aware Week activities were designed to be easy to implement, with minimal cost. Stakeholders were provided activities to implement, along with a social media toolkit featuring videos, graphic ads, and sample social media posts in English and Spanish to use as-is or modify. PrEP Aware Week included over 750 distinct events and activities undertaken by over 250 participating providers.

I recently had a chance to speak to James Tesoriero and Rachel Newport about the impact of their work.

James Tesoriero, PhD, directs research, new programming, and quality improvement initiatives at the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute. He has served as the Institute’s Director of Epidemiology, Evaluation and Partner Services and as the Director of HIV Prevention. Dr. Tesoriero serves on the Health Department’s IRB and as an adjunct faculty at the University at Albany School of Public Health. Dr. Tesoriero received his doctorate in criminology from the University at Albany.

Rachel Newport, MSED, is a Senior Health Program Coordinator at the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute. She leads statewide public health campaigns and oversees the PrEP, HIV, STI and Viral Hepatitis Consumer Education Materials Initiative, distributing 500,000+ print items per year in addition to managing regional training centers that deliver programming across New York State on HIV, HCV, STIs, LGBTQ health, drug user health and related topics.

Listen to the Podcast:

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