Drawing from a nontraditional pathway into biomedical HIV research grounded in clinical and community-based work, this presentation explores how mentorship, community-academic partnerships, and creative public, private, and nonprofit funding mechanisms can expand HIV prevention, testing, and care. I will highlight innovative delivery models, including health vending machines, alongside lessons learned from sustaining community-centered research during periods of uncertainty. The talk concludes by emphasizing the importance of multilevel social support—strategic guidance from senior mentors and collective care among early-career peers—in navigating challenges and sustaining momentum.
Neighborhood-level factors such as crime and public transportation access could all affect a person living with HIV’s ability and willingness to seek HIV care by impacting their ability to safely commute to and from clinics and pharmacies. Linking place of residence with both publicly available crime and public transport data from 2018-2022, this project provides an opportunity to explore how these factors are associated with individual HIV care engagement among a cohort of men who are living with HIV.
This study examines how to optimize a conditional cash transfer (CCT) intervention to increase PrEP use among Black and Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) in Los Angeles County. Findings from a discrete choice experiment reveal preferences for larger cash payments provided more frequently, with some variation in PrEP modality. These results highlight the potential of tailored CCT designs to improve PrEP uptake and advance national efforts to reduce new HIV transmissions among key populations.
This presentation compares traditional Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) models with the RiseUP! Enhanced Differentiated Service Delivery (EDSD) model for HIV care and treatment among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Sub-Saharan Africa. We analyze retention rates and medication adherence across various countries, highlighting the effectiveness of the RiseUP! model’s holistic, youth-friendly approach. The study emphasizes the importance of tailored, community-based interventions in improving HIV care outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Despite the availability of resources such as Ryan White-funded clinics that offer free access to HIV healthcare, significant disparities in viral suppression rates exist. This study examines the association between neighborhood characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and viral suppression among people living with HIV in neighborhoods served by Ryan White-funded clinics in Southern California.
Presentation by Harsh Agarwal and Mark Erwin that examines how telehealth is often touted as a solution to overcome several PrEP barriers. This study explores how PrEP retention compared for clients who accessed it via Telehealth versus In clinic clients. Further, this study examined inequities in each group and then compared those inequities with each other.
Presentation by Taj Morgan that described how we used human-centered design to develop an innovative mobile app to improve HIV care continuum outcomes and overall well-being among young Black gay and bisexual men living with HIV. This process, which involved co-creating the app with end users and HIV service providers, resulted in a program with high feasibility, acceptability, and likely uptake.
Presentation by Dr. Toluwani Adekunle that highlights the experiences of Black and Latine HIV care consumers that foster medical mistrust. These are experiences as pertaining to care consumers’ perceptions of healthcare provider behaviors that invoked feelings of stigma/discrimination, thereby influencing care consumers’ levels of trust and mistrust.
This infographic discusses the recent Texas case Braidwood Management v. Becerra, in which the court ruled that the employer requirement to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medication for HIV prevention, violates the plaintiff’s religious rights. The infographic further discusses the Texas’ Braidwood decision and its impact on California & the affordable Care Act