ARLINGTON, Va. (May 29) – In an effort to encourage more minority physicians to enter into careers in HIV/AIDS care, the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) for the second year is awarding Minority Clinical Fellowships.
This year’s recipients are Veronica Ayala-Sims, MD, and Damaris Olagundoye, MD. For both, the desire to work with minority HIV/AIDS patients is the result of an inability to turn their backs on the inescapable fact that African Americans and Latinos are the worst hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Both fellows will be working in the South, the region of the country with the highest current rate of AIDS cases.
While minority communities make up the lion’s share of HIV/AIDS cases, there are very few African-American and Latino physicians in this field of care, as is true in medicine generally. The Minority Clinical Fellowship program was created as an attempt to increase the number of minority clinicians committed to reverse this health crisis and care for those who have the disease.
“Early diagnosis and access to treatment for HIV-infected individuals increase survival and quality of life for adversely affected minority groups,” said HIVMA Board of Directors Chair Arlene Bardeguez, MD, MPH. “The challenge of this new generation of providers is to provide access in a culturally sensitive way to populations affected by the epidemic, and to educate the communities regarding effective prevention strategies while advocating for development of microbicides and vaccines that will prevent new infections.”
The HIVMA Minority Fellowship recipients will begin their one-year fellowships in July. The fellowships provide each recipient a stipend plus benefits for one year as well as financial support for the fellow’s mentor. Recipients will work with HIVMA mentors at institutions serving large minority populations where they will receive clinical training while continuously managing HIV-positive patients in hospitals and clinics.
Dr. Olagundoye, who is finishing a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, will focus on HIV and pregnancy and reducing rates of transmission to the fetus. She will receive mentoring and clinical instruction from Stephen Raffanti, MD, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Comprehensive Care Center (CCC), one of the largest free-standing HIV clinics in the country, both in Nashville. Dr. Ayala-Sims is finishing a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU); she will complete her fellowship with Daniel Nixon, DO, PhD, at VCU.
HIVMA received support for the fellowships from Abbott Laboratories, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Tibotec Therapeutics.
BIOGRAPHIES OF HIVMA MINORITY CLINICAL FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
Damaris Olagundoye, MD
Dr. Olagundoye began a focus on HIV during the last two years of her obstetrics-gynecology residency when she learned that African-American women were the fastest-growing population of newly diagnosed cases of HIV. “Unfortunately, HIV is a disease that has a stigma attached to it; there’s still some fear and trepidation about HIV,” said Dr. Olagundoye. “Because of that, I feel drawn to these patients.”
Dr. Olagundoye graduated with a degree in biology from Oakwood College, in Huntsville, Ala. (now Oakwood University) and earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College, in Nashville, Tenn. She started her career with a focus on women’s health, obstetrics and gynecology.
“If you can do your best to get a baby to deliver at full term, that levels the playing field,” she said. “There are limitless opportunities for a child who is more likely to be born healthy.”
Growing up in Brooklyn, Dr. Olagundoye had early insight into the life of health care professionals because both of her parents are nurses.
“Watching them work two jobs to support the family, and listening to their medical stories really attracted me to helping other people,” said Dr. Olagundoye. “It’s my calling in life.”
“I feel that we are all given certain gifts,” said Dr. Olagundoye. “I feel my purpose is to reach out to and help take care of the underserved.”
Veronica Ayala-Sims, MD
As a medical resident, Dr. Ayala-Sims recently worked with AIDS patients at various stages of illness. “Those patients who for whatever reason don’t have good access to care, but who really need care, are the most vulnerable,” said Dr. Ayala-Sims. “They are closest to my heart.”
After college, she worked at The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), in Arlington, Va. where she helped develop two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded programs dealing with HIV. She also worked as a prevention speaker in the Richmond area for an AIDS-based organization in the Peninsula Health System and with Parexel, putting together national AIDS drug assistance program meetings.
“I am fascinated with AIDS because it brings to light the things we as a society don’t really talk about that are barriers to care – racial and ethnic issues, poverty, disparities in education, substance abuse and mental health,” said Dr. Ayala-Sims. “It forces you to think about the impact of how we treat people with the disease.”
“During my residency, I worked at an HIV clinic and became acutely aware that living with this disease also entails addressing a lot of psychosocial issues from ethnicity to sexual orientation” she said. “To be an effective, well-rounded provider, you need to be able to not just treat the clinical aspects but realize that people may need your help coping with other aspects of their lives as well. That, to me, is what it means to be a caring physician.”