“Experts addressed the future of U.S. efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS abroad at a panel discussion earlier this week in Washington, D.C.,” GlobalPost reports. “Convened by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center, the event focused on the policy implications of a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) evaluation of the U.S.’ largest global health program, [PEPFAR],” the news service writes, noting, “The congressionally mandated IOM report, published in February, heralded PEPFAR as ‘globally transformative’ and made several recommendations to continue the program’s progress on preventing and treating HIV/AIDS. Chief among these recommendations is for the U.S. to help partner countries assume management of their own programs.”

“Panelists discussed priorities for PEPFAR in the coming years, including the need to improve metrics and data, better address the needs of at-risk populations, and ensure sustained program funding,” GlobalPost continues. Obtaining data is “really the challenge of our field,” panelist Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, according to the news service. The panelists “acknowledged that the legislation’s reauthorization in 2013 is uncertain, but said that either way, the IOM report provides a path for future global work on HIV/AIDS and related global health issues,” the news service states, adding, “The successful transition of programs to partner countries [was] one of the IOM’s most important takeaways.” Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator Julia Martin, who also appeared on the panel, said, “We’re grappling very seriously with the word ‘transition'” and its meaning for each country, GlobalPost notes. J. Stephen Morrison, CSIS vice president and director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, moderated the panel, which also included Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and Kimberly Scott, senior program officer at the IOM, according to the news service. GlobalPost includes a video of the discussion (Miley, 5/2).