Telemedicine: a solution to disparities in human immunodeficiency virus prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake, and a framework to scalability and equity

Abstract

As the group with the highest risk and the lowest pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) utilization, black and Hispanic young men who have sex with men (MSM) face the brunt of the current human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic within the United States. In this narrative review, we summarized recent interventions that utilize technology (telemedicine) to improve HIV PrEP uptake. We examined the general model of those telemedicine programs and evaluated their success and limitations in addressing PrEP accessibility for at-risk individuals. We also identified the current bottlenecks in the scalability of telemedicine programs, offered suggestions to overcome these barriers, and advocated for a centralized source of funding to increase the accessibility of telemedicine programs for PrEP.