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Studies routinely find that in patient care, experience correlates with expertise; in HIV care, an experienced provider is often defined as one who cares for ≥20 patients annually. However, little clinical validation of that fairly arbitrary benchmark exists.
With the help of pharmacy claim analysis, researchers in New York State assembled a cohort of 368 “low-volume” clinicians who provided routine ambulatory care for 2 to 19 HIV-infected patients during 2009. Most were either internists or family practitioners located in urban parts of the state. Eighty-four of these low-volume providers agreed to submit records for review (total, 293 patients).
Compared with “high-volume” providers in the state (defined as those registered with the state's…