A study led by James D. Neaton of Consortium member center the Clinical and Translational Science Institute has definitively demonstrated the benefit of immediate treatment with antiretrovirals upon diagnosis with HIV. The National Institutes of Health-funded study, called Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment (START), was halted early because the preliminary data was so compelling, showing patients who got treatment right away were 53 percent less likely to die or develop AIDS during the study. START was created in 2009 to clarify whether immediate treatment was preferable to the guideline at the time, which called for American doctors to start therapy when a patient's CD4 count (and indicator of immune system health) fell below 500.