Welcome to the website of the Special Treatment and Research (STAR) Program at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1991, the STAR Program is an integrated clinical, educational, research and community service program within SUNY Downstate’s Department of Medicine.

The STAR Program provides specialized care and support services for adult clients and families living with HIV or other chronic conditions, through its two clinical sites.  STAR’s flagship clinic, STAR-Downstate, is located at SUNY Downstate in East Flatbush, the only academic medical center in Brooklyn. STAR’s second clinic, STAR-Brookdale, was established at One Brooklyn Health’s Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in East New York, in November 2017. Both sites serve culturally and linguistically diverse clients who represent the heterogeneity of people living with HIV and other chronic conditions in NYC.

As you click through the pages of our website and learn more about the STAR Program, I hope you will see what makes us unique. Traditionally, academic medical centers such as Downstate see their mission as having three roles. The first role is education, training our next generation of health care professionals. The second role is the provision of quality care. The third role is advancing knowledge through research. At STAR we see our mission as larger than that. Our fourth role is caring for the community.  We raise community awareness about HIV, hepatitis C, substance use and other health care challenges. We conduct outreach and provide education both virtually and on-site at schools, churches, shelters and other community-based venues throughout Brooklyn. All of our activities are guided by the input of consumers and community members through the STAR Community Advisory Group. As leaders in population health, we implement community-based interventions to improve the health of the entire borough.

The STAR Program always strives to do better. We work constantly towards becoming better teachers, caregivers, researchers and community activists. We have an active Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative involving all staff to increase access to and decrease inequities for the various communities we serve. We look forward to partnering with you in our quest to make Brooklyn healthier, and I welcome your suggestions towards achieving this goal.

Jack A. DeHovitz, MD, MPH, MHCDS, FACP

Distinguished Service Professor and Director, STAR Program
jack.dehovitz@downstate.edu
718.270.1069