The New York/New Jersey AIDS Education and Training Center (NYNJ AETC), and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL), released an update to their online course: “Hepatitis C Medications and Special Considerations for People Living with HIV." With this update, the newest treatments for combatting Hepatitis C (HCV) are now included in the content of the course.

This self-paced course includes videos by experts and interactive activities. Learners are guided through two patient cases followed by a detailed decision activity that reveals differing treatment paths, and end points, depending on a variety of patient factors. Daria M. Boccher-Lattimore, Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, developed this course with CCNMTL to support Doctors and Health Care providers; however, anyone interested in learning about HCV treatment can participate at learn.nynjaetc.org for free.

HCV, a worldwide public health problem, causes cirrhosis, liver cancer, and is the leading cause of liver transplantation. Until recently, treatments for HCV resulted in sustained suppression of the virus for only 50% of patients with the type most common in North America and Europe. Health care providers must be fully aware of the most recent, and effective, treatments available in order to manage patient care, and determine how best to treat HCV in patients who are also infected with
HIV.

The NYNJ AETC, and CCNMTL, first released "Hepatitis C Medications and Special Considerations for People Living with HIV" on learn.nynjaetc.org in 2013. At that time the course provided a self-paced overview of two direct-acting antivirals being used to treat HCV.

This project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Doctors who complete the course can receive continuing medical education credits for the course through Weill Cornell.