09/06/2026
This will be my last post urging ALL of our former patients who have not obtained their complete medical records to contact https://desertriversolutions.com ASAP to obtain their medical records prior to them being destroyed in a HIPAA compliant manner.
It was an honor and a privilege for Dr. David Morris, Dr. Amy Swartz, Dr. Kimball Johnson, Dr. Emily McClure, Dr. Africa Alfarez and me along with our Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants Terry Hackworth, Rodney Fox, Dwayne Hicks, Nancy Baltus, and Gail Parker together with our amazing nursing team and pharmacists including but not limited to Debbie Wagner, Kyle Derrick Adams, Jacarda Smith, Laura Reidich, Tunesia Nicole Lyons, Russell Daily, Robert Johnson, Lance Giles, Jean Robinson, Jason Nash, Juli Bettandorff Eschenbach, Corey Woodward, and Deb Fincher to participate in the care of our patients. Our administrative and patient support staff including but not limited to Pamela Richards, Sam Hemphill, Deb Johnson, Renee Sloan, Scott Fryberger, Kevin R Davis, Deborah Dahlan, Diane Carter, Jessica Williams-Farrington, Garrett Williams, Andy Scheer, and Melissa Deresch were phenomenal. As I approach my twilight years, there is not a day that goes by when I don’t realize how fortunate I was that these people of the highest intelligence, ethics and moral fortitude surrounded me.
Although we were a primary care practice, for our those of our patients who are HIV+ (which was a MINORITY) what has never really been publicly discussed is the contribution of 2 gentlemen, without whom many of those patients would not be alive and thriving today. My friend Tony Campolo was responsible for our patients being the part of the pilot program for HIV genotyping. He took it upon himself to coordinate and develop a program for those patients (who were HIV+) with Robert Lloyd Jr, who was then the owner of Applied Sciences of Norcross GA to do HIV genotyping on those patients starting in the middle 90s, long before this technology was FDA approved and became the standard of care.
Robert M. Lloyd, Jr. is a co-inventor and co-author associated with the development and validation of the TRUGENE HIV-1 Genotyping Kit. He was the inventor on related pathogen genotyping patents and co-authored foundational evaluation studies for the assay alongside researchers from Visible Genetics for the TRUGENE HIV-1 Genotyping Kit which is an integrated molecular diagnostic system used with the OpenGene DNA Sequencing System to detect drug-resistance mutations in the protease and reverse transcriptase genes of HIV-1. Tony Campolo introduced us to Robert Lloyd and therefore made it possible that every patient living with HIV (which again was a minority) had access to this advanced lifesaving technology many years before the general public. HIV genotyping specifically identifies mutations that cause drug resistance, which helped our doctors be one of the first in the world in choosing the most effective treatment, ensuring persisting long-term benefit of genotypic-guided treatment of HIV-infected patients failing HAART. On Sept. 28, 2001, the FDA approved the Visible Genetics, Inc., PMA for its TrueGene HIV-1 Genotyping Kit and Open Gene DNA Sequencing System to be used to identify drug resistance in HIV patients. The first formal U.S. guideline recommendation to perform HIV genotypic resistance testing in people entering care—before starting antiretroviral therapy—was made in 2003. Although every payor was different, it was quite some time before insurance companies would universally pay for this advanced lifesaving technology. Together with my team, these 2 men contributed to PRIDE MEDICAL's low rate of morbidity and morbidity among our patients who were HIV+ because at PRIDE MEDICAL we were testing for HIV genotypic resistance testing in all of our patients living with HIV since 1996. I will always be proud of that fact.
