Brief Report: Transition Preparation and Post-Transition Evaluation Practices at Adult Clinics That Care for Young Adults With Perinatally Acquired HIV in Massachusetts, United States.

Background: Most young adults with perinatal HIV (PHIV) transition from pediatric or adolescent to adult clinical care. Although guidelines to increase transition success have been recommended, we know little about uptake of these guidelines, particularly by adult care clinics.

Methods: We administered web-based surveys to adult care providers of young adults with PHIV in Massachusetts to evaluate transition preparation and post-transition evaluation practices.

Adding value to antiretroviral proficiency testing.

Background: Clinical trial specimens tested for antiretroviral (ARV) concentrations often require compliance with Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act and/or the Food and Drug Administration bioanalytical guidance.

Experimental: The Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance Program (CPQA) designed 8 proficiency testing (PT) rounds over 4 years to assess precision, specificity and stability.

Results: Ten laboratories provided blinded proficiency data to support continued acceptable precision of ARV methods.

Clinical pharmacology quality assurance program: models for longitudinal analysis of antiretroviral proficiency testing for international laboratories.

Among National Institutes of Health HIV Research Networks conducting multicenter trials, samples from protocols that span several years are analyzed at multiple clinical pharmacology laboratories (CPLs) for multiple antiretrovirals. Drug assay data are, in turn, entered into study-specific data sets that are used for pharmacokinetic analyses, merged to conduct cross-protocol pharmacokinetic analysis, and integrated with pharmacogenomics research to investigate pharmacokinetic-pharmacogenetic associations. The CPLs participate in a semiannual proficiency testing (PT) program implemented by the Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance program.