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IN THE COMMUNITY PACT: Changing the Face of Care PACT, an acronym for Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment, is a project that cares for HIV-positive residents of Boston's underserved neighborhoods. "We're using a community health-promoter model to help poor and marginalized HIV-positive and high-risk patients achieve better health and well-being," said Heidi Behforouz, executive director of PACT since 1998 and an HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. As a joint initiative of the HMS Division of Social Medicine, Health Inequalities at BWH, and Partners In Health, PACT employs community health promoters who, through education, counseling, case management, and accompaniment, assist individuals who are among the 10 to 15 percent of HIV-positive people in greater Boston who are failing standard care. PACT's health promoters help participants gain the skills, knowledge, and motivation they need to improve their health and quality of life. Through its work in the community, PACT hopes to better understand the barriers that the poor and vulnerable face, as well as to design and evaluate models of care that will improve outcomes among the underserved. Many student volunteers from all HMS classes work with PACT. Behforouz strongly encourages faculty participation through mentoring of students or direct project involvement. Interested faculty should e-mail hbehforouz@partners.org for more information. --Hammid Firoozeh