Robert Pitts

Robert joined the faculty in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation (DGIMCI) at New York University in 2018, to enhance the LGBTQ and HIV prevention services at NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H). During his fellowship training in infectious diseases, from 2016 to 2018, Robert partnered with DGIMCI to open the first HIV Prevention Clinic at H+H/Bellevue. Since opening in 2017, the clinic has provided care to over four hundred patients, many of whom have been started and maintained on PrEP (a medication that, if taken correctly, can prevent HIV); to date, no patient in the program has become HIV-infected. Recently, the clinic was rebranded as an LGBTQ Pride Center. Robert is now associate director and is responsible for the daily operations of the clinic, which include implementing protocols to enhance LGBTQ care.

NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) is the largest public health care system in the nation and delivers high quality care annually to over one million New Yorkers, regardless of their country of origin or ability to pay. NYC H+H/Bellevue is one of the eleven acute care hospitals in New York's public hospital system. Because of both its central location in Manhattan as well as its role in receiving transfers from other hospitals and practices throughout the city, its role in combatting the opioid epidemic has dramatically increased. Addiction medicine is practiced at the hospital in a wide variety of settings: from the inpatient psychiatric units; to the CATCH team, a robust addiction consultation service that bridges the inpatient and outpatient worlds; to three different outpatient opioid treatment programs; to emergency services.