About the National HIV Curriculum

The National HIV Curriculum is a free, up-to-date educational resource for healthcare professionals to learn about HIV diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. This 100% federally-funded curriculum is an AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) Program led by the University of Washington (UW) Infectious Diseases Education & Assessment (IDEA) Program. The website offers 91.5 free CME, CNE, CE and 65.5 free pharmacology CE for advanced practice nurses and features:  

• 6 modules with 37 lessons address core competencies in HIV care 
• 37 corresponding Question Bank topics with 395 interactive, case-based questions
• Antiretroviral Medications section has prescribing info, clinical trials, and slide decks
• 18 clinical screening tools and calculators provide clinical decision support
• Podcast explores practice-changing issues and updates
• Clinically relevant Mini-Lectures that supplement lesson material
• 5 concise HIV Symptom Evaluation Guides 
• Online learning group functionality to onboard and train healthcare professionals, residents, and students
• Individualized and learning group progress trackers

Continuing Education (CE) Credits Available

All IDEA curricula offer free CME credits, CNE contact hours, and CE contact hours. Pharmacology CE for advanced practice nurses is often available. For those who don’t need CE, Certificates of Completions are available.
View or download National HIV Curriculum units and available CE 

Funding support

All IDEA curricula are 100% funded by either the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The National HIV Curriculum is an AETC Program supported by HRSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $1,332,044 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. 

History

Founded in 1946, the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine (UWSOM) is a nationally recognized leader in training physicians. In 2003, Dr. David Spach, a board certified physician and Professor of Medicine in UWSOM’s Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led efforts to create a federally-funded, online infectious disease curricula based on adult learning theory with customized instructional design. Dr. Spach is now Editor-in-Chief for the following IDEA curricula: Hepatitis C Online (launched 2013), the National STD Curriculum (2017), the National HIV Curriculum (2017), Hepatitis B Online (2020), and the National HIV PrEP Curriculum (2024)

Created and managed by the IDEA Program, these websites were integrated to provide a consistent user interface and uniform design allowing learners to quickly and easily navigate and access content. Registered learners can use a single username and password across curricula.

Mission and Goals

The IDEA mission is to deliver innovative, free, online education and training to diagnose, manage, and prevent infectious diseases. The long-term goals of the IDEA curricula are to:

• Improve and enhance the competency of health professionals currently providing medical care to people living with or at risk for infectious diseases; 
• Expand the number of health professionals interested in and capable of providing competent medical care to those individuals; 
• Improve the quality of medical care; and 
• Prevent new infections among persons at risk

Guiding Principles

IDEA content, resources, and services are free and accessible 24/7 to all healthcare professionals, healthcare settings, and organizations without regard to race/ethnicity, age, gender, socio-economic status, sexual identity, or gender identification. Content is developed using four principles. Please click on any principle to learn more.

• Clinical Relevance 
• Reliability
• Innovation
• Integration 

Clinical Relevance

• Content is up-to-date and based on current federal treatment guidelines
• Authors, reviewers, and editors are experienced, working clinicians and/or medical school faculty Contributors
• Clinical calculators and tools provide clinical decision support and are accessible from multiple devices Tools and Calculators 
• The Antiviral Medications section includes in-depth prescribing info, clinical studies, and slide decks 
• Podcast covers HIV diagnosis, management, and prevention through case discussions, expert interviews, and literature reviews
• Experts discuss clinically relevant topics in concise Mini-Lectures
• Each of the five HIV Symptom Evaluation Guides provide clinicians with a framework for evaluating certain common symptoms that individuals with HIV may experience
• Learning is self-paced for a variety of healthcare professionals (novice to experienced)
• High-quality audio/visual multimedia, graphics, and medical illustrations enhance written content
• The master bibliography is searchable by topic or author
• Specific references are embedded as citations within the text

Reliability

• 100% funded by the federal government and unbiased by commercial funding
• Free AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) CME credits and free CNE contact hours, pharmacology CE for advanced practice nurses and CE contact hours from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)  CE Notices  
• Personalized progress tracker, on-demand CE certificates, and Certificates of Completion are available 24/7
• All IDEA sites adhere to University of Washington Privacy Policies and the IDEA Privacy Policy 
• The information and data collected from registered learners are encrypted. The websites use industry standard encrypted SSL connections (SHA-256 with RSA Encryption).

Innovation

• The IDEA curricula are custom-designed to meet the unique needs of medical professionals
• Dual-purpose use allows learners to alternate between “quick reference” to immediately access information (no registration or sign-in needed) and “self-study” (stop and start learning while tracking progress, CE, and Certificates of Completions)
• Downloadable PDFs of lessons are available to view offline (available in quick reference)
• Online learning groups provide educators and managers an efficient, scalable tool to curate content, enroll learners, and monitor performance 

Integration

• Learners can use a single sign-on (same name and password) for all IDEA curricula
• Uniform navigation tools, CE processes, progress trackers, and the learning group tool allow for a consistent learner experience
• As treatment guidelines change, resulting updates and references are implemented throughout all the curricula 
• Learning groups allow healthcare entities and training programs to implement a “flipped classroom” model
• Modules, lessons, and Question Bank topics can be accessed through the CDC TRAIN Learning Network and all units meet the CDC Quality Training Standards.