Research and practical tools for stronger HIV prevention.
Explore the XULA Voice research program or open a provider-focused resource library for HIV testing, PrEP, PEP, treatment, communication, and navigation.
Widening the circle of who can safely deliver PrEP.
A multi-year research program at Xavier University of Louisiana — moving HIV prevention from specialist clinics to the primary-care providers and community pharmacists who already sit at the front door of underserved communities.
One question, told in three chapters.
Who is allowed to hand someone PrEP — and can we widen that circle without losing patients? Each study answers the next question the last one raised.
Provider type & retention
Retrospective cohort at a New Orleans FQHC comparing infectious-disease specialists with primary-care providers on keeping PrEP patients in care.
Pharmacy readiness
Statewide needs assessment of community pharmacists: who already stocks PrEP, who serves these patients, and which languages they speak.
Pharmacist willingness
Knowledge, attitudes, confidence and barriers among community pharmacists — most working in high HIV-incidence regions of the Deep South.
What the data show.
Every figure below is drawn from primary study data. Sample sizes are stated on each panel; the pharmacist studies are convenience samples concentrated in Louisiana and the Gulf South.
The specialist advantage is a mirage
Odds of retention for ID specialists vs. primary-care providers — before and after adjusting for age, race, and risk. When confounders are controlled, provider type stops predicting who stays in care.
Retention in care
Follow-up captured across the first six months of PrEP.
Pharmacies are already stocked
Share of surveyed pharmacies offering each service.
Willing and positive — but not yet trained
The workforce readiness gap in a single view. Attitudes and perceived importance run high; formal knowledge and training run low. That distance is precisely what a training-and-implementation grant closes.
What's standing in the way
Perceived barriers to prescribing PrEP, ranked by mean rating (higher = greater barrier). Separately, attitude items show religious or belief-based objections were among the weakest of all — the obstacles here are operational, not moral.
The evidence points to one intervention.
Seven years of data converge on a single, fundable conclusion. The 2019 outcomes study established that expanding PrEP beyond infectious-disease specialists does not cost patients their retention in care — primary-care providers perform equivalently once you adjust for who their patients are.
The 2024–25 needs assessment showed that community pharmacies are already positioned to be the next link in that chain: two-thirds serve PrEP patients, most stock the medication, and many speak the languages of the communities most affected.
The 2025–26 willingness study located the one missing piece. Pharmacists want to prescribe and see it as responsible care — they simply haven't been trained. Close that gap and a ready, trusted, geographically distributed workforce comes online in exactly the high-incidence communities where the epidemic persists.
An HBCU-anchored pharmacy research team.
Grounded at Xavier University of Louisiana — the nation's leading producer of Black pharmacists — and partnered with front-line HIV prevention providers in New Orleans.
Xavier University of Louisiana
College of Pharmacy · Division of Clinical and Administrative Sciences, New Orleans. All studies reviewed and approved by the Xavier University of Louisiana Institutional Review Board.
Help bring PrEP to the Gulf South's front door.
We're seeking foundation and industry partners to fund the training and implementation phase — turning a willing pharmacist workforce into a functioning prevention network. Study data, protocols, and a full proposal are available on request.
HIV prevention and care resources, organized for practice.
Select one of the six resource tabs below to focus on testing, PrEP, PEP, treatment and retention, patient-centered communication, or referrals and navigation.
HIV Testing
Screening, testing, diagnosis, and patient-education resources.
PrEP Resources
Clinical guidance and patient-counseling tools for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.
PEP Resources
Tools for assessing possible HIV exposure, initiating PEP, and coordinating follow-up.
Treatment & Retention in Care
Resources for treatment support, follow-up, retention, and re-engagement in HIV care.
Patient-Centered Communication
Tools for respectful, private, culturally and linguistically responsive HIV care.
Referrals & Navigation
Connect patients with HIV care and services that address barriers to continued care.