Amy C. Justice

Associate Professor of Medicine
VA Chief, Section of General Medicine
Section of General Internal Medicine

Research Activities

Dr. Justice has done research in outcomes in chronic HIV infection, for the past 16 years. Her goal is to use HIV infection as a model for improving outcomes in chronic disease by studying the association between mutable mediators of clinical outcome in HIV and intervening on these mediators. She is the Principal Investigator on the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS). This research, initially funded by career development awards from the National Institute on Aging and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, considers the complex roles of aging, symptoms, medical treatment, adherence, patient-provider relationships, disease severity, and medical and psychiatric comorbid illness in determining survival and quality of life for people with HIV infection. VACS has received 5 years of funding from NIAAA to conduct an expansion of the study to include HIV negative controls and additional study sites. The study is focused on understanding the likely interactive and overlapping role of alcohol use and abuse in determining outcomes among veterans aging with HIV infection and comparing this role to age-race-site matched HIV negative veterans. For more information on the VACS study, visit the website: www.vacohort.org. Dr. Justice has experience with observational data including analyzing large and complex databases, comparing results across databases, and conducting observational studies. She has studied predictors of survival and quality of life and is expert in the development, validation, and evaluation of multivariable prognostic models. Dr. Justice has served on fourteen expert panels addressing issues of understanding and improving clinical outcomes in HIV infection. She is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for Collaborations in HIV Outcomes-US (CHORUS) an ongoing observational study of over 5,500 people with HIV infection and a mentor to the Indiana University-Moi University Kenya AIDS Care Initiative. Additionally she serves on the Executive Committees of the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, the Yale Center for Interdiscplinary Research on AIDS, and the National VA HIV-QUERI Executive Committee.

Selected Recent Publications

• Braithwaite RS, Kozal MJ, Chang CCH, Roberts MS, Fultz SL Goetz MB, Gibert C, Rodriguez-Barradas M, Mole L, Justice AC. Adherence, virologic and immunologic outcomes for HIV-infected veterans starting combination antiretroviral therapies. AIDS (in press).
• Crothers K, Goulet JL, Rodriguez-Barradas M, Gilbert C, Butt A, Braithwaite RS, Peck R, Justice AC. Decreased awareness of current smoking among health care providers of HIV-positive compared to HIV-negative veterans. J Gen Intern Med (in press).
• Butt AA, Justice AC, Skanderson M, Rigsby MO, Good CB, Kwoh CQ. Rate and predictors of treatment prescription for hepatitis C. Gut 2007, 000: 1-6.
• Braithwaite RS, Roberts MS, Justice AC. Incorporating quality of evidence into decision analytic modeling. Ann of Intern Med, 2007: 146: 133-141.
• Gange SJ, Kitahata MM, Saag MS, Bangsberg DR., Bosch RJ, Brooks JT, Calzavara L, Justice AC, et al. Cohort Profile: The north American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD). Int J Epidemiol (in press).
• Goulet JL, Erdos J, Kancir S, Levin FL, Wright SM, Daniels SM, Nilan L, Justice AC. Measuring performance directly using the veterans health administration electronic medical record. Med Care 2007, 45(1):73-79.
• Justice AC. Prioritizing primary care in HIV: comorbidity, toxicity, and demography. Topics in HIV Med 2006; 14(5): 159-163.
• Cotton S, Puchalski CM, Sherman SN, Mrus JM, Peterman AH, Feinberg J, Pargament KI, Justice AC, Leonard AC, Tsevat J. Spirituality and religion in patients with HIV/AIDS. J Gen Intern Med 2006;21:S5-S13.
• Mrus JM, Leonard AC, Yi MS, Sherman SN, Fultz S, Justice AC, Tsevat J. Health-related quality of life in veterans and non-veterans with HIV/AIDS. J Gen Intern Med 2006;21:S39-S47.

Education:	B.A., Harvard University, 1982 M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, 1988 M.S.C.E., Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1994 Ph.D., Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1996
Training:	Medicine Internship: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1988-89 Medicine Residency: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1989-91 RWJ Clinical Scholar: University of Pennsylvania, 1991-93 GIM Research Fellow: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1991-95 NRSA Fellow: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1991-95

Contact

Campus Address
WHVAMC
Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS)
950 Campbell Avenue, 11 ACSL-G
Bldg 35A, 2nd Fl, Rm 212
West Haven, CT 06516

E-mail
amy.justice2@med.va.gov

Office Phone
203-932-5711, ext. 3541
Fax 203-937-4926