He also began to serve as medical director of an oncology-immunology infusion and research center. In 1991, while working at his medical practice in Sunnyvale, California, Frascino became infected with HIV while drawing fluid from an HIV-positive patient's blister. According to the "Los Altos Town Crier", "the patient jerked, jamming the needle into the doctor's gloved hand. Despite receiving prophylactic antiviral medication immediately, Frascino tested positive for HIV a few weeks later." Although Frascino had to retire from his medical practice in 1996 when his health began to decline, he noted that acquiring HIV had given him a unique perspective during his years of work with patients. Sixteen years later, he said, "There are risks to being a physician, including contracting an illness. I took that risk. I would take that risk again to be a physician." In 1996, shortly after Frascino had stopped working as a physician, he and his partner, Steven Natterstad, M.D., held a small charitable event in their home. They played piano to raise money for a local AIDS organization, and because of the success of that event, they founded the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation three years later. The foundation's self-described mission is "to provide crucial services for men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through advocacy and education." Each year, Frascino performed with Natterstad and San Francisco Conservatory of Music Professor William Wellborn at A Concerted Effort, a concert series whose proceeds benefit the foundation. Since its inception, the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation has raised more than $1,500,000 for its goals. The foundation's beneficiaries include hospice care programs in Los Angeles, AIDS education programs in primary schools in Mendocino, the pediatric program at Children's Hospital Oakland, AIDS Legal Services of San Jose, and HIV-positive women in sub-Saharan Africa, to whom the foundation provides medication that reduces the chance of passing on the disease to their children during labor. In May 2000, Frascino began to run two advice forums on TheBody.com, a comprehensive resource about HIV/AIDS funded by Remedy Health Media. His forums on The Body, the largest database of HIV/AIDS information in the world, focused on Safe Sex and HIV Prevention and on Fatigue and Anemia. Having studied French before and during his undergraduate years, Frascino was bilingual and responded to questions in both French and English on the site.