Heidi Behforouz is founder and director of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) project, which has pioneered an innovative and successful approach to reach Boston’s sickest and most isolated AIDS patients and restore them to health. PACT is becoming an increasingly sought-after model for AIDS treatment efforts in other cities. In 2006, Dr. Behforouz and PACT were asked to provide strategic consultation to New York’s AIDS Adherence Quality Improvement Initiative. In addition, PACT is working with the New York City health department to replicate the PACT model in several city hospitals. And, the city of Miami has asked PACT to work with officials there to explore the possibility of extending the model to Jackson Memorial Hospital in the spring or summer of 2007. This year also marked PACT’s first international effort. At the request of the Peruvian Ministry of Health, Dr. Behforouz and the PACT staff are working with other DGHE doctors to replicate PACT’s treatment adherence approach for impoverished patients in Peru.

Dr. Behforouz graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1990 and received her MD from Harvard Medical School in 1994. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1997, a one-year fellowship in Women’s Health at BWH in 1998, and participation in the Clinical Effectiveness Program at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002. She is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician at BWH.