Hepatitus C Screening and Referral to Treatment

Principal Investigator: Dr. Douglas AE White

Funder: Gilead FOCUS

After establishing the utility of ED-based HIV screening over the past decade with more than a dozen peer-reviewed papers, Dr. White and his team have broadened the scope of the ED-based public health screening program to include the identification of hepatitis C. Once an essentially untreatable infection, Hep C is now curable, and the underlying idea of this work is to get more patients with Hep C on the path to a cure.  Like HIV, Hep C is found among many patients whose social circumstances lead them to seek episodic emergency care, leaving detection of their disease up to the emergency care system. The work of Dr. White and his team has already led to advances in the efficient use of emergency resources to uncover undiagnosed hepatitis C.