CANADIAN AIDS TREATMENT INFORMATION EXCHANGE (CATIE)

The Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE) is Canada's leading treatment information service related to HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1989, CATIE is a consumer driven non-profit organization that provides information on the holistic treatment of HIV/AIDS infection and on clinical advances in the field of HIV/AIDS infection, primarily to persons with HIV/AIDS, their professional and non-professional care givers, and to relevant community organizations.

By providing AIDS treatment information, encouraging the exchange of information, and collaborating with organizations to support community capacity building, CATIE helps empower people living with HIV/AIDS and community support services to optimize the quality of life and to help prevent the progress of disease and opportunistic infections - and to reduce the impact of treatment side effects.

CATIE's services include a bilingual 1-800 telephone consultation service, a range of electronic and print publications in both official languages and a World Wide Web site to make these publications and other information and tools available via the Internet. CATIE also participates in skills-building and treatment information conferences and workshops.

CATIE maintains a national reference library comprising a comprehensive collection of HIV/AIDS treatment information in print and electronic formats. The agency also pursues outreach and promotion activities on a national level and provides expert advice to a range of government, industry, research and community organizations.

CATIE is governed by a volunteer national board of directors, a majority of whom are people living with HIV/AIDS. CATIE has recently completed a renewal and restructuring process, positioning it well for future growth.