New Film Profiles UCSF HIV/AIDS Leaders

By Shipra Shukla

UCSF pioneers in the fight against HIV/AIDS are profiled in a new documentary film, which chronicles the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.

The main purpose of the film, "aids2031 San Francisco Response," is to honor the achievements of the past while looking toward the future, particularly focusing on the next generation of leaders to combat the disease.

The film focuses on the courage of young clinicians who collaborated to develop what is referred to as the San Francisco model of care during the 1980s.

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"UCSF has always been an innovative institution which sees their commitment to society as multifaceted," said Eric Goosby, MD, a physician in the Men of Color Program, 360: the UCSF Positive Care Center at UCSF and CEO of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation. "On every front of HIV, UCSF has had the leadership. There has been a great concentration of UCSF faculty playing a major role from the first day of the AIDS epidemic." The film was co-produced by aids2031, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. It screened last month at the de Young Museum as part of young leaders summit, which focused on developing a new generation of leaders in the fight against HIV and AIDS and was sponsored by AIDS2031 and Google.org. Spotlighting the San Francisco Model "The San Francisco response and the San Francisco model were very important," said Don Abrams, MD, professor of medicine in the UCSF Department of Medicine. "They shed a beacon for the nation in a time of darkness when we could show that we could all come together and fight as a team." Abrams is among the early UCSF leaders who are featured in the film and talk about their work in what was referred to as ground zero at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). The film also includes Goosby, Mervyn Silverman, MD, PhD, a former San Francisco public health director who later served as a member of the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies, and Paul Volberding, MD, professor and vice chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine and chief of the Medical Service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Volberding's research career began at SFGH with investigations of HIV-related malignancies, especially Kaposi's sarcoma, but his focus shifted to testing antiretroviral compounds, in groundbreaking trials establishing standards of care for the use of zidovudine in asymptomatic patients infected with HIV. "When I saw my first AIDS patient on July 1, 1981, I could not have imagined the impact this disease would have worldwide or that 25 years later it would still be such a problem," said Volberding. "Unfortunately, it's now all too easy to predict that in 2031, 50 years after that first case, HIV and AIDS will still be with us and challenging our efforts at understanding and control." With a name derived from the future 50th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS, AIDS2031 is a consortium of leaders who have come together to examine the AIDS response and to consider the implications of the changing world of the disease to chart options for a long-term response. The consortium brings together multidisciplinary teams, including economists, epidemiologists, and biomedical, social and political scientists to encourage public debate and stimulate new research. Organizations that support the initiative include the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.org, among others. Google.org is exploring ideas on using its surveillance technologies to look at viral and host reservoirs that cross species. "I think the biggest area of innovation will be in the area of surveillance," said Goosby. "The need for technology which relates to mapping as the pandemic progresses, is a natural fit for Google, which is leading the way in mapping technology." Nurturing a New Generation The mission of AIDS2031 is in part to develop a new generation of international leaders who will be prepared to address concerns in the fourth decade of the pandemic. "Many of us who have been at this since the beginning are getting a little gray, and we need to develop a new generation of individuals who will take the reins," said Goosby. Royce Lin, MD, assistant clinical professor in the UCSF Department of Medicine's Division of HIV/AIDS, is among those who represent the next generation of leaders featured in the film.

Diane Havlir

As co-director of the Positive Health Program at SFGH, Lin works closely with Diane Havlir, MD, a professor in the UCSF Department of Medicine. For several years, she has serves as chief of the UCSF Positive Health Program, which is recognized globally as a leader in HIV clinical care, research and education. Founded in 1983, the Positive Health Program arose from the vision of Volberding, Abrams and the late Constance Wofsy, MD, an infectious disease specialist. It has been ranked as the top facility in the country for AIDS care by US News and World Report. "A central mission of our HIV/AIDS division and the Positive Health Program at SFGH is to train the next generation of clinical and research leaders in HIV," said Havlir. "Dr. Lin was the first graduate of our HIV clinical scholars program, a unique program aimed at training, guiding and grooming the next generation of HIV clinicians." Although she was not profiled in the film, Havlir was a resident at SFGH during the mid-1980s and was one of the young leaders at the time who participated in the early struggle. As a result of these experiences, she went on to pioneer research in HIV therapeutics which helped to transform AIDS from an almost invariably fatal disease to a chronic one. Havlir also is an architect of the current World Health Organization guidelines for global treatment of HIV. Leading the Way The work of the Positive Health Program is an example of how UCSF is addressing the changing pandemic. Many leaders remark that, as the face of AIDS has changed from a gay white American man to an African woman, UCSF has led the response. One programmatic example of this response came in 2004, when the Positive Health Program created its international training arm called AIDS Services, Prevention, Intervention, Research and Education (ASPIRE) at SFGH. Directed by Catherine Lyons, NP, MS, MPH, ASPIRE focuses on sub-Saharan Africa at locations including Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe. ASPIRE's mission is to build capacity in resource-limited settings for the care of people with HIV and AIDS. This is done through supporting existing national HIV/AIDS training programs and developing care delivery systems which involve the community and training nurses in HIV/AIDS management. The idea of UCSF faculty, students and trainees training health care providers in a part of the world most impacted by the disease is directly in line with the UCSF Strategic Plan priorities of developing leaders and serving the global community. "We are enormously proud of Dr. Lin's work in Africa," said Havlir. "He is clearly an up-and-coming future leader in HIV education. The UCSF Strategic Plan prioritizes developing the world's future leaders as a guiding direction to help the University achieve our goal of advancing health worldwide. Lin will undoubtedly carry the torch of excellence in education created by the leaders and legacy of UCSF." Related Links: aids2031 San Francisco Response AIDS Walk San Francisco UCSF Positive Health Program