Standard of care: promoting antiretroviral adherence in clinical care.

Although there has long been demand for programs and procedures that support or enhance adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV+ patients, there is scant evidence about the extent to which medical clinics have been able to incorporate adherence interventions into their standard care. A survey of clinical care settings in New York and Connecticut indicated that the current standard of care is to provide only minimal levels of adherence services, with ad hoc adherence support being offered on an as-needed basis, often by overburdened primary care staff. These results suggest a strong need for the development of ART adherence interventions that are not only easily translatable to real-life clinical settings, but also offer an organized compendium of resources for HIV+ patients, from initiation to maintenance.