165. Linkage to care and engagement in care for newly diagnosed HIV-positive youth within fifteen adolescent medicine clinics in the United States

Purpose: The National HIV/AIDS Strategy emphasizes the importance of linkage to care (LTC) for newly diagnosed persons. However, 30% or more of newly diagnosed youth are not linked-to-care within 6 months. The study describes a structural intervention to enhance care linkage and engagement for newly diagnosed youth. SMILE in Caring for Youth (SMILE) is an NIH, CDC and the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network (ATN) collaboration that provided a full-time LTC outreach worker (OW) to each of the 15 ATN sites. The goal of the study is to report on preliminary findings regarding the success of the SMILE program for improving LTC outcomes