Dr. Stephen W. Nicholas, a pediatrician in New York City, was a pioneer in providing care for children with HIV and their families since the 1980s in Washington Heights and Harlem, New York. He realized that many of these children with HIV were from the Dominican Republic and decided to travel to La Romana, Dominican Republic to better understand the problem. At the time, there were no medications in the country to treat HIV. He then started the first program in the east of the country to prevent vertical transmission by treating pregnant women with HIV.
She then collaborated with the Fundación MIR and the Religiosas Adoratrices to establish a family-centered care clinic in 2004, one of the first health centers in the country to provide antiretroviral therapy to its clients HIV-positive patients. What began as a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, very quickly grew to have a much broader mission, providing psycho-social support and medical care not only to women with HIV and their newborns, but also to their families, other vulnerable populations and the general public. Today, Clínica de Familia La Romana is an independent organization , recognized as a model clinic for integrated health services in the Dominican Republic.
