SIS Clinic

Service Director(s):
Clinical Manager:
Lynda Aliberti

Patients Served
Special Immunology Services (SIS) serves HIV positive patients and patients co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. 

Services Provided
The clinic can assist clients with counselling and assistance accessing other resources such as Ontario Drug Benefits.  Clinic staff provides health education and counselling in lifestyle risk reduction.  Clients experiencing general health problems such as a cold or other minor ailment are asked to contact their family doctors.  If a patient has concerns related to their treatment regime they are encouraged to contact the clinic where a staff nurse can assist them.  Clients in the SIS clinic may be referred to the dietitian for counselling to maintain health.

The SIS Team
The SIS team is made up of clinic staff nurses, a social worker (1), a public health nurse, a dietitian, a research nurse practitioner and a research nurse.

Your first visit to SIS
All patient information will have been forwarded to the clinic prior to the first visit.  A patient’s initial visit will be a meeting with a staff nurse and either the social worker or the public health nurse. 

At this visit a general health assessment is done and the patient’s questions about HIV are answered.  The patient will have baseline blood work drawn at this visit in preparation for the second visit.

On the second visit the patient will meet with a physician.  These visits are usually less than a week apart. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Who are the doctors at the SIS clinic?

A.  All physicians at the SIS clinic are experienced in HIV care with most having an infectious diseases specialty background.

Our current physicians are Dr. Smaill, Dr. El Helou, Dr. Haider, Dr. Smeija, Dr. Lee, Dr. Segal, and Dr. Walker. 

Q.  How do I find the SIS clinic?

A.   The SIS clinic is located at the McMaster site of Hamilton Health Sciences on the first level in the yellow section.

The SIS clinic is affiliated with the SIS Research team, providing opportunity for clients to participate in research trials to advance HIV therapy.

Referral Information 

Patient Information:
To book the appointment the following is required:

• Full name
• Date of Birth
• Sex/gender
• Address   / Postal code / Telephone number
• Health Card Number / Version Code
• Language
• Please indicate if a translator is required
• Please indicate if power of attorney for health decisions needed

Referring Professional:
Referring physicians must include their name, address with postal code, telephone number, OHIP billing number.  If a health care practitioner other than the family physician is referring please include the family physician information.

Medical Information and Reason for Referral: 
Prior to appointment we require the following:

• Signed referral note from the referring physician
• Copy of the positive HIV test result
• Copies of consult notes
• Copies of test results (blood, urine, x-ray including CD4 count, viral load if available)
• If the above information is not received before for the first appointment, the appointment will be rescheduled.
• Please inform your patient that the first appointment will be with the clinic nurse and either a social worker or public health nurse.  The second appointment will be scheduled with a clinic physician.