Clinical and Implementation Outcomes of a Point of Care Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Strategy to Improve HIV Prevention Service Delivery in Adolescents

The proposed research hypothesizes that point-of-care testing (POCT) for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) gonorrhea and chlamydia will be a feasible, acceptable, and appropriate implementation strategy for improving HIV testing and Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) delivery in youth, by increasing opportunities for clinician-patient counseling, decreasing loss to follow up, and allowing for same-day HIV prevention service provision. This hypothesis will be tested in a pragmatic non-randomized trial comparing clinical (HIV testing and PrEP counseling and prescription) and implementation (feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness) outcomes between adolescents receiving POCT compared to laboratory-based testing at three clinics within a large pediatric health system.