Welcome to the new PCI/HWPP newsletter!

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Primary Care Initiative (PCI)/Health Workforce Pilot Project (HWPP) newsletter! If you’re reading this here, you probably received the newsletter by email. You can also read it online.

The goal of this quarterly newsletter is to provide useful and interesting information regarding the PCI and HWPP. We hope that updates on data collection, policy, events, and other news will help program participants and others who are peripherally involved feel more connected to the work at UCSF's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) office.

Since the middle of 2007, the HWPP project has been studying the efficacy and safety of advanced practice clinicians (APCs) performing first trimester aspiration abortions utilizing a two-part training program. Under a legal waiver from California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD), we began training our first APC in a Northern California clinic. Now, two years later, we are training in four California regions, have 13 APCs in the project's independent practice phase, three APCs in the training phase and over 30 additional clinicians waiting to begin the training process with many more projected to participate.

As you read through this first newsletter, think about other items you would like us to add. This is meant to inform those of you who know of the HWPP project and those who are intimately involved with its operation-what do you want to know? Please send an email with your comments or suggestions.

All of us working on the PCI/HWPP project want to thank all of our trainers, trainees, research coordinators, site administrative staff and clinic staff for making this project possible. We truly appreciate what you do.

Shauna Nyborg
Project Assistant, HWPP
nyborgs@obgyn.ucsf.edu