This $267,000 Project Grant award from the National Institutes of Health's Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) will fund a study to assess the clinical and implementation outcomes of a point-of-care sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing strategy to improve HIV prevention service delivery in adolescents. The research will be conducted by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The study aims to evaluate how a new point-of-care testing modality for gonorrhea and...
This $616,742 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) aims to characterize geographic mobility patterns and determine the impact on PrEP and HIV care outcomes among Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in New York City. The research will involve qualitative in-depth interviews and mobility mapping with 80 Latino GBMSM participants, including those living with and without...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) totaling $367,332 aims to develop a Youth Learning Health Community (Y-LHC) in North Florida to optimize the implementation of evidence-based HIV prevention interventions for youth. The key objectives are to: 1) Define implementation strategies using community-engaged system science methods for youth in North Florida (R21 phase); 2) Conduct...
This $364,832 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) will fund the delivery and evaluation of an enhanced care intervention called "HIV Prevention Plus Care (HP+ Care)" for young men who have sex with men (YMSM) starting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in two clinics. The HP+ Care intervention will include motivational interviewing and personalized health education to promote retention in...
This $749,228 Project Grant award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (CFDA 93.837 Cardiovascular Diseases Research) supports collaborative research to investigate the linkages between HIV/STI prevention and syndemic behaviors in high-risk youth. The principal investigators will harmonize data from 6 prior youth HIV/STI and syndemic prevention intervention studies to use advanced machine learning methods to examine the role of youth-provider relationships in intervention outcomes....
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $702,000 to support a 3-year project aimed at optimizing the implementation of long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (LAI-PrEP) for HIV prevention. The key objectives are to: 1) Identify barriers and facilitators to LAI-PrEP implementation, 2) Determine optimal implementation strategies in partnership with...
This $5.37 million project grant from the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse will fund the development of a context-aware digital adherence intervention called SMARTSTEPS to improve pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence among men who have sex with men with substance use disorder. The grant will support two phases. Phase I will inform the specification of an algorithm that utilizes digital phenotyping data from a smartphone app to anticipate non-adherence based...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the Director awarded a five-year, $200,000 Project Grant under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) to the Research Foundation of the City University of New York (RFCUNY) to conduct a hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial evaluating a data-driven implementation strategy for a comprehensive care management and care coordination (CCM/CC) intervention to improve HIV care continuum outcomes. The project aims to: 1) examine the...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), authorized under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242), is for $692,070 to adapt and pilot test a digital health HIV prevention intervention for Black heterosexual couples in New York State. The primary objectives are to: 1) Adapt an existing digital health intervention to meet the specific needs of this target population; and 2) Conduct a 6-month pilot randomized controlled trial with 60 couples to...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), supports the development and assessment of a behavioral economic intervention to improve HIV-related behaviors among sexual minority men (SMM). The $264,091 award, effective September 15, 2024, aims to refine and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) intervention delivered via smartphone to address delayed...
KEEPING IT LITE 2: EXPLORING HIV RISK IN VULNERABLE YOUTH WITH LIMITED INTERACTION AND DIGITAL HEALTH INTERVENTION (LITE-2) - ABSTRACT DESPITE ADVANCES IN HIV DIAGNOSTICS, CARE AND PREVENTION STRATEGIES, INFECTION RATES AMONG ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITIES (SGM) CONTINUE TO RISE IN THE UNITED STATES (US). THERE IS AN URGENT NEED TO DESCRIBE THE EPIDEMIOLOGY AND TRAJECTORIES OF HIV ACQUISITION IN THIS POPULATION AND TO OFFER AGE AND CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE SCALABLE PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO THOSE AT HIGHEST RISK OF INFECTION IN THE US. THIS PROJECT WILL ENGAGE AND RETAIN YOUNG SGM IN AN INNOVATIVE LONGITUDINAL COHORT, ENROLL THEM IN A DYNAMIC ESTABLISHED DIGITAL HEALTH RETENTION PLATFORM (HMP; HEALTHMPOWERMENT), MONITOR HIV RISK AND PREVENTION BEHAVIORS AND EXPLORE THE SOCIOECOLOGICAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE USE OF NEW HIV PREVENTION TECHNOLOGIES (UG3 PHASE), WHILE ALSO ALLOWING TARGETED TESTING OF NOVEL DIGITAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS (UH3 PHASE). WE WILL ALSO TEST THE EFFICACY OF EXPANDING THE CORE VERSION OF HMP (HMP BASIC) BY ADDING ADHERENCE TOOLS (HMP ENHANCED) FOR THOSE WHO ARE ON PREP OR ART TO IMPROVE ADHERENCE AND PERSISTENCE. IN AIM 1, WE WILL ENROLL AND RETAIN A LARGE (N=6000; 3000/YEAR), DIVERSE COHORT OF SEXUALLY ACTIVE, SGM ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS, AGES 13-34, USING INNOVATIVE DIGITAL RECRUITMENT, ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION STRATEGIES. OVER THE COURSE OF THE STUDY, WE WILL LONGITUDINALLY CHARACTERIZE THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR, HIV TRANSMISSION RISK, AND PREP UPTAKE TRAJECTORIES OF SGM YOUTH UTILIZING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL TRAJECTORY ANALYSES TO IDENTIFY THE MOST EFFECTIVE POINTS OF INTERVENTION (AIM 2). FOR AIM 3, WE WILL LAUNCH A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL TO EXAMINE THE EFFICACY OF HMP ENHANCED TO IMPROVE PREP ADHERENCE AMONG HIV-NEGATIVE YOUTH (N =750) AND ART ADHERENCE AMONG HIV-POSITIVE YOUTH (N =150) COMPARED TO HMP BASIC. FINALLY, WE WILL MAXIMIZE THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE COHORT BY TESTING NEW AND INNOVATIVE DIGITAL HEALTH DEVICES, HIV/STI DIAGNOSTICS AND INTERVENTIONS, INFORMED BY THE PREVIOUS AIMS AS WELL AS EMERGING NIH PREVENTION PRIORITIES (AIM 4). OUR INVESTIGATIVE TEAM HAS DECADES OF EXPERIENCE WITH RECRUITMENT, PREVENTION AND CARE OF SGM YOUTH AND LARGE-SCALE LONGITUDINAL COHORT STUDIES. THIS STUDY WILL CAPITALIZE UPON PRODUCTIVE EXISTING PARTNERSHIPS AND DIGITAL HEALTH EXPERTISE TO ARTICULATE THE DRIVERS OF THE ONGOING HIV EPIDEMIC AMONG THE MOST VULNERABLE POPULATIONS IN THE US IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY THE MOST EFFECTIVE, EXPEDITIOUS AND SCALABLE STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS THIS ONGOING PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS.