Howard University Telehealth Training Center
HUTTC Home | About | News | Current Projects | Past Projects | On-Demand Videos and Podcasts

Welcome to H-NIP

Read More About Us

The Howard University College of Medicine integrates the National HIV Curriculum (NHC) e-Learning Platform into the education and training curricula of 28 medical, nursing, pharmacy and other health profession programs (HPP) including graduate education/residency programs located at 14 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The overarching goal of the project is to expand the HIV clinical workforce by increasing the number of health professional graduates who receive specialized training in the care and management of persons living with HIV/AIDS.

The H-NIP team has developed six courses based on the NHC and offer them as electives to HBCU HPP students in Year 1 of the project while training HBCU HPP staff to offer the NHC courses themselves starting in Year 2 of the project and providing technical assistance to the institutions so that they develop the technological infrastructure to support the NHC e-learning platform. At the conclusion of the project each participating HPP will have integrated the NHC into its health curriculum as a mandatory requirement and 1,964 health professions students will be trained annually on the NHC.

hands holding AIDS ribbonOur Mission

Since HIV medicine is not taught in many health professions academic or training programs, it is generally not required by school accrediting agencies. This project will help increase the number of well-trained HIV clinicians in the U.S while simultaneously addressing the national shortages in the HIV clinical workforce.

Program Leadership

The Howard University National HIV Curriculum Integration Project (H-NIP) is housed in the College of Medicine. Dr. Goulda Downer, Associate Professor in the College of Medicine and Director for the project, shares that this targeted HBCU population has been specifically selected for the following reasons – HIV/AIDS disproportionately impacts persons of color, particularly African Americans.

Furthermore, people of color are more likely to live in medically underserved areas and prefer being treated by providers of color. Also, the majority of physicians of color are more likely to work in medically underserved areas and treat racial/ethnic minorities than non-minority physicians. Among Black physicians currently in practice, the majority receive their training from a historically black college or university (HBCU).

Meaningful Impact

On September 1, 2018, Howard University College of Medicine was awarded a $600,000 annual cooperative agreement from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) totaling $2,400,000 over four years. The purpose of the award is to integrate the National HIV Curriculum (NHC) e-Learning Platform into the education and training curricula of health professions programs. These programs include medical, nursing, pharmacy and other health profession programs (HPPs) including graduate education/ residency programs. The programs selected for this project are all located in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Contact Us

We are happy to talk with you; learn how to reach us.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Our quarterly newsletter covers H-NIP updates and insights. Email us to be added to the list.

SUBSCRIBE; if the link doesn't open your email, please send an email to: [email protected]


This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U1OHA32108, Howard University: Integrating the National HIV Curriculum e-Learning Platform into Health Care Provider Professional Education (H-NIP) in the amount of $2.4M and with 0% financed with nongovernmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.