AIDS TREATMENT NEWS Issue #210, November 4, 1994
John S. James
ATIS began operation on October 31. It joins a number of other AIDS information sources provided by Federal agencies, of which some of the most important are:
* The National AIDS Hotline -- 800/342-AIDS, 24 hours; 800/344-SIDA (Spanish speakers), 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time; 800/AIDS-TTY (TTY access for the deaf), 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. This hotline answers general questions about AIDS, and can refer callers to service organizations in their area.
* The AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service (ACTIS) -- 800/TRIALS-A (800/874-2572), Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time, which can provide information about clinical trials in your area -- what drugs are being tested, entry criteria, etc., and whom to call locally for further information.
ATIS staff are working with these and other information services to build a treatment information referral network, which will be used to link callers to appropriate resources.
Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, M.D., urged "community-based organizations and AIDS service organizations all over American (to) help get the word out about ATIS."
The sponsoring agencies are: Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, Indian Health Service, National Institutes of Health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Comment
The organizers of ATIS asked this writer and others for input and advice while designing this system. We believe that ATIS can be important, but users need to understand its limitations.
First, like any treatment information service, it can provide information, but not treatment advice. The people answering the phone are information specialists, not physicians; and even physicians could not provide advice by phone without examining the patient or getting a medical history.
A more serious limitation is that ATIS can only provide Federally-published information; otherwise there would be endless uncertainty about what could and what could not be included. But Federal AIDS information is extensive -- including, for example, the treatment guidelines of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), articles in the MMWR SERIES (MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and U.S. National Institutes of Health consensus statements. ATIS will also refer callers to non-Federal agencies when appropriate, as the National AIDS Hotline commonly does.
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