African-American clinicians providing HIV care: the experience of the National HIV/AIDS Clinicians' Consultation Center.

This analysis compares patient and provider characteristics of African-American clinicians and non-African-American clinicians who called the National HIV Telephone Consultation Service (Warmline). In 2004, a total of 2,077 consultations were provided for 1,020 clinicians, 70 (6.9%) of whom were African American. Compared to the non-African-American group, a higher percentage of African-American clinicians were nurses (20.0% vs. 8.8%, p=0.002). A significantly lower percentage of African-American physicians were infectious disease specialists (3.5% vs. 25.6%, p=0.007). African-American clinicians were more likely to work in a community clinic (48.5% vs. 34.1%, p=0.015). Both African-American and non-African American clinicians reported caring for a similar number of HIV-infected patients. Patient-provider racial concordance was common among African-American clinicians (76.4%), whereas non-African-American clinicians called about patients of more diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. African-American clinicians who called Warmline exhibited differences in patient and provider characteristics when compared to all other clinicians. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on HIV providers in the United States.