Get to Know Our Community Research Partners: Evergreen Health

Since its founding as AIDS Community Services in 1983, Evergreen Health has worked to address the crisis generated by HIV and AIDS. Evergreen offers comprehensive HIV services to help those living with this chronic illness to receive medical care and treatment, pharmacy services, insurance enrollment, individual and group counseling, case workers and care coordination, and more.

We recently spoke with Matthew Crehan Higgins, Evergreen’s Associate Vice President of Specialty Care, about the organization’s goals and research interests.

What is Evergreen’s mission/vision?

Evergreen Health fosters healthy communities by providing medical, supportive, and behavioral services to individuals and families in Western New York — especially those who are living with chronic illness or who are underserved by the healthcare system. We envision a future in which all Western New Yorkers have access to affordable healthcare in an environment that is inclusive, compassionate, respectful and judgment-free; that honors diversity and life experience; and that empowers patients to lead healthier, happier lives.

Who does Evergreen aim to help?

Our organization was founded during the earliest days of the HIV/AIDS crisis as AIDS Community Services to address a rapidly evolving health crisis, and that has informed our work as it has evolved ever since. We continue to work with people living with HIV and are happy that we have long operated in a paradigm where HIV is a manageable chronic condition, and that there is medication available for prevention for people with ongoing potential for HIV exposure. We also provide specialty medical care for the treatment and cure of Hepatitis C and to provide affirming healthcare to persons of trans experience. We offer a wide range of services for people who use drugs including WNY’s only syringe exchange and medically assisted treatment. Further, we have behavioral health and supportive services to address a person’s whole health.

Why did your organization become a partner in research?

We are an innovating organization with an ongoing interest in doing the best we can with the resources available and also working toward the next generation of resources. There are also lessons to be learned from doing the work itself.

What kind of UB research initiatives have you collaborated on? 

Our medical director, Alyssa Shon, MD, works with us through UBMD [the practice plan of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences with more than 500 physicians] and oversees our participation in two studies related to cabotegravir, a drug currently in investigation stages for HIV work. She also has a study related to liver fibrosis treatment. We have collaborated many times with Sarahmona Przybyla, PhD, MPH, School of Public Health and Health Professions, related to patient and provider experience in our fields of work. Most recently, we looked at their perspectives on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Dr. Shon has staff onsite at our organization who work directly with the patients from our practice who are participating in the research. For the School of Public Health, we work with the school’s researchers and our staff to identify patients as well as providers who would qualify for the studies and to encourage that they participate. Something that has been exciting is that Dr. Przybyla has been very committed to returning to our sites to share the findings of the work with the staff.

How do you think your involvement impacted the research? 

We have the largest reach to priority populations in the region when conducting research of import to the field of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Doing what we can to integrate those things into our culture, I think, increases patients’ willingness to participate.

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about Evergreen Health?

We have come a very long way in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, but of course good news travels faster than bad news. It lingers longer, too. We now have a daily pill that prevents HIV and we know that HIV positive people who are successfully engaged in treatment become undetectable, and then cannot transmit HIV forward. Those are incredible developments that would have seemed impossible to be true in the not too distant past. When we think and talk about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, we do our best when we challenge what we think we know and make sure that we have the most recent and credible information.

For more information on Evergreen Health, visit evergreenhs.org.