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The National Institutes of Health just released an RFA [Request for Applications] called "HIV Prevention in Treatment Settings." They intend to fund grants for up to five years, at up to $500,000 per year. And not only could this RFA have been written just for us, it could have been written by us. They're outlining the same connections and priorities we've been writing about. They're calling for more of exactly the kind of research we're doing now. We can take our data from the "Spirituality and HIV" study and present it as "pilot data" for the study we'll propose that they fund - and there's nothing that makes them more willing to fund your study than proving that you're already doing that kind of research and getting results.
Now I know what I'll be doing every day between now and October 29th.
"Domestic and international HIV prevention programs have generally focused on HIV-negative persons, to help them avoid becoming infected. However, it has become increasingly apparent that to stem the tide of new infections, additional attention and resources should be focused on persons living with HIV [...] Studies are needed to (a) better understand the association among HIV treatment response, treatment adherence, risk behavior, and other psychosocial factors that are likely to impact these variables (e.g., housing instability, substance abuse, depression, domestic violence); (b) develop innovative approaches to risk behavior change based in treatment settings, especially interventions that combine behavioral and medical/biological components; (c) examine optimal mechanisms for referral to services for prevention needs that are not feasible in medical settings; (d) increase medical care providers' linkeage of persons to care who had previously not known their HIV serostatus; and (e) improve utilization of systems to facilitate partner notification."
[...]
"Because substantial improvement in duration and quality of life with HIV/AIDS is a relatively recent advance, the associations among HIV treatment response, treatment adherence, sexual behavior, drug use and addiction, and a variety of psychosocial factors are as yet poorly understood. For many, HIV disease has become more of a chronic condition and other lifestyle concerns may be more immediate and important than maintenance of safer sexual choices (e.g., employment, medical care, day-to-day stressors, dyadic and sexual relationships, complacency about infectivity, drug and alcohol use). Studies are needed to better understand the antecedents, correlates, and topography of risky behavior throughout all phases of treatment and disease."
Over the last week, I've been entering data on 133 subjects, including information about their risk behaviors, treatment adherence, treatment response, housing instability, substance abuse, depression, dyadic and sexual relationships, day-to-day stressors, employment, medical care, and complacency about infectivity. I'll be able to break down our risk behavior information on demographic characteristics, specific risk groups, length of infection, types of sexual partners, types of sexual behavior, medical status, engagement in treatment, treatment adherence, and various psychological factors (such as depression).
That means that we'll be able to submit a proposal that makes concrete and specific statements about relationships among these variables in our population - not just theoretical assumptions about which variables should be related.
If the proposal gets funded, I'll be assured of a job doing the kind of research I want to do - for at least the next five years. And we'll be hiring, growing the Behavioral Medicine lab. It will absolutely win more respect and attention for our program. And it should mean the provision of critically important services to patients.
Now we just have to write a proposal they can't possibly refuse.
Now I know what I'll be doing every day between now and October 29th.
"Domestic and international HIV prevention programs have generally focused on HIV-negative persons, to help them avoid becoming infected. However, it has become increasingly apparent that to stem the tide of new infections, additional attention and resources should be focused on persons living with HIV [...] Studies are needed to (a) better understand the association among HIV treatment response, treatment adherence, risk behavior, and other psychosocial factors that are likely to impact these variables (e.g., housing instability, substance abuse, depression, domestic violence); (b) develop innovative approaches to risk behavior change based in treatment settings, especially interventions that combine behavioral and medical/biological components; (c) examine optimal mechanisms for referral to services for prevention needs that are not feasible in medical settings; (d) increase medical care providers' linkeage of persons to care who had previously not known their HIV serostatus; and (e) improve utilization of systems to facilitate partner notification."
[...]
"Because substantial improvement in duration and quality of life with HIV/AIDS is a relatively recent advance, the associations among HIV treatment response, treatment adherence, sexual behavior, drug use and addiction, and a variety of psychosocial factors are as yet poorly understood. For many, HIV disease has become more of a chronic condition and other lifestyle concerns may be more immediate and important than maintenance of safer sexual choices (e.g., employment, medical care, day-to-day stressors, dyadic and sexual relationships, complacency about infectivity, drug and alcohol use). Studies are needed to better understand the antecedents, correlates, and topography of risky behavior throughout all phases of treatment and disease."
Over the last week, I've been entering data on 133 subjects, including information about their risk behaviors, treatment adherence, treatment response, housing instability, substance abuse, depression, dyadic and sexual relationships, day-to-day stressors, employment, medical care, and complacency about infectivity. I'll be able to break down our risk behavior information on demographic characteristics, specific risk groups, length of infection, types of sexual partners, types of sexual behavior, medical status, engagement in treatment, treatment adherence, and various psychological factors (such as depression).
That means that we'll be able to submit a proposal that makes concrete and specific statements about relationships among these variables in our population - not just theoretical assumptions about which variables should be related.
If the proposal gets funded, I'll be assured of a job doing the kind of research I want to do - for at least the next five years. And we'll be hiring, growing the Behavioral Medicine lab. It will absolutely win more respect and attention for our program. And it should mean the provision of critically important services to patients.
Now we just have to write a proposal they can't possibly refuse.
no subject
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I was chatting with someone from INOVA a couple of months ago about the push to do "prevention for positives" but I haven't seen anything about it...granted, I'm out of touch with the scholarly journal type stuff at this point. I'd expect it to be the next big thing...but I'm always out looking for more information.
(Then again, I keep promising I'll get out of HIV work too.)
no subject
Hey, maybe we'll be hiring in March of 2003...
I was chatting with someone from INOVA a couple of months ago about the push to do "prevention for positives" but I haven't seen anything about it...granted, I'm out of touch with the scholarly journal type stuff at this point. I'd expect it to be the next big thing...but I'm always out looking for more information.
The CDC recently put out a call for more prevention work with HIV+ people. It seems awfully late, but it's only recently that people have started worrying about transmission of drug-resistant virus. Right now 5-15% of treatment-naive patients are already resistant to at least one medication - meaning that they were infected by someone with drug-resistant HIV. And as medical programs continue to expand access to treatment without simultaneously working hard on treatment adherence and risk behavior reduction, that percentage is only going to get higher. It's the damn medical model again - all we need to do is come up with good drugs, and we'll contain the epidemic. Um, no.
Yikes. Where did this hobby horse come from?
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no subject
Very cool. Not only that it suits what you guys are doing already, but because I'm glad they're looking at that sort of thing. So cool on many levels.
no subject
Good luck with this! And yes, very, very cool.
-J
Hurrah!