The Wayne State University-Detroit Medical Center (WSU-DMC) HIV/AIDS Program was established as a CPCRA unit in 1989. Their mission is to provide high quality health care in a compassionate manner to persons with HIV disease and to conduct basic epidemiologic and clinical HIV research. Additionally, they are committed to providing education to health care providers and the community. During the calendar year 1997, a total of 4,915 visits were made to the outpatient infectious disease clinic by 1,098 patients. The routine care of these HIV infected individuals and concomitant enrollment into clinical trials protocols is accomplished in their program. The ambulatory care clinic is located on the same floor as the academic and clinical research office. A phlebotomy station within the clinic makes it convenient for both patients and the research staff to obtain protocol specific laboratory samples. Major goals are to expand the patient base by opening new sites, continue to enroll underrepresented populations into studies and to maintain high quality research data. The location in the inner city, serving those in some of the most economically challenged areas of Detroit, puts the unit in a position to accrue minorities, injection drug users, and women into CPCRA protocols. They expect to have a minimum of 200 patients on study at any given time throughout the course of the grant.
