Preparing for Pharmacy-based Delivery of Long-acting Injectable Antiretroviral Therapy (LAI-ART)

The objective of this study is to facilitate the future delivery of long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy in community pharmacies by developing an in-depth understanding of attitudes, barriers, and facilitators for implementing this intervention. The mixed-methods approach will incorporate three quantitative implementation outcome measures (Acceptability of Intervention Measure, Intervention Appropriateness Measure, and Feasibility of Intervention Measure) and semi-structured qualitative individual interviews which will be analyzed for relevant themes. This would be considered pure implementation research of the pre-implementation stage of LAI-ART administration in community pharmacies. Participants will be purposively sampled from four different geographical sites (San Francisco Bay Area, Corpus Christi Texas Area, Montgomery Alabama Area, and Miami/Hollywood Area) and over three different key stakeholder groups (pharmacists, patients, clinic staff) to obtain a variety of experiences, attitudes, and opinions. Most participants will have a single study visit which consists of their interview. A small proportion of pharmacists will have a second study visit for a follow up interview and questionnaire if their pharmacies have implemented a program to administer LAI-ART or are close to launching one.

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18 years or over
• Access to telephone (at minimum), access to internet/email preferred

Pharmacy staff members must meet the following additional criteria:

• Currently employed at a community (retail, independent, specialty, chain) or outpatient health system pharmacy.
• Self-reported likelihood or potential to be involved with some aspect (e.g. billing, scheduling, administering, advertising, training) of implementing long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy in pharmacies.

Patients (persons with HIV) must meet the following additional criteria:

• Self-reported diagnosis of HIV, currently taking antiretroviral therapy (LAI-ART or oral or other)
• Self-reported undetectable HIV-1 viral load (Note: if potential participant does not know they will be encouraged to contact their health care provider to ask)
• Access to telephone

Clinic staff must meet the following additional criteria:

• Currently employed in a clinic practice where HIV-positive patients comprise > 10% of clinic population
• Self-reported likelihood or potential to be involved with some aspect (e.g. billing, scheduling, administering, advertising, training, referring patients to other clinics) of implementing long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy in their own clinic setting.

Exclusion criteria

• Pharmacy staff with no forseeable involvement in implementation of a long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy administration program.
• Patients/persons who are not diagnosed with HIV, who are candidates for long-acting cabotegravir as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.
• Clinic staff members with no current or forseeable involvement in supporting patients to receive long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapies.
• Persons who do not speak English to a degree that would allow full comprehension of and participation in the study.