Health administrative data can be used to define a shared care typology for people with HIV

Objectives — Building on an existing theoretical shared primary care/specialist care framework to (1) develop a unique typology of care for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Ontario, (2) assess sensitivity of the typology by varying typology definitions, and (3) describe characteristics of typology categories.

Study Design and Setting — Retrospective population-based observational study from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2012. A total of 13,480 eligible patients with HIV and receiving publicly funded healthcare in Ontario. We derived a typology of care by linking patients to usual family physicians and to HIV specialists with five possible patterns of care. Patient and physician characteristics and outpatient visits for HIV-related and non-HIV-related care were used to assess the robustness and characteristics of the typology.

Results — Five possible patterns of care were described as low engagement (8.6%), exclusively primary care (52.7%), family physician-dominated comanagement (10.0%), specialist-dominated comanagement (30.5%), and exclusively specialist care (5.2%). Sensitivity analyses demonstrated robustness of typology assignments. Visit patterns varied in ways that conform to typology assignments.

Conclusion — We anticipate this typology can be used to assess the impact of care patterns on the quality of primary care for people living with HIV.