The Sociobehavioral and Prevention Research Core provides support for the integration of social and behavioral science into a comprehensive research agenda for HIV prevention and care. This research agenda has been revolutionized by treatment as prevention. There are new priorities, and greater emphasis on theories and methods farther down the T0-T4 continuum: translation, implementation, community engagement and population-level effectiveness. These are traditionally areas of strength for the social and behavioral sciences. Our core has a decade of experience in facilitating innovative interdisciplinary research in HIV prevention and care, and we have a strong and productive relationship with local partners: Public Health - Seattle & King County (PHSKC), the UW CFAR Community Action Board (CAB). Our new aims place greater emphasis on translational research with these partners. This will be supported by new personnel: Dr. Matthew Golden, Professor of Medicine at UW and Director of the HIV and STD Control Program for PHSKC, and Dr. Julie Dombrowksi, a young investigator whose research focuses on population based monitoring and improving engagement in HIV care in the U.S. Both bridge the Academic - Public Health boundary in their research and practice.
Our aims are: 1: Foster research and training in Comprehensive HIV Prevention, supporting new projects on HIV and sexual minority related stigma, and a combination prevention modeling; 2: Foster research and training in the Cascade of HIV Care, supporting a new regional CFAR - public health department consortium to define common metrics, identify disparities, and develop, implement and evaluate interventions to improve outcomes at each step in the HIV care cascade; and 3: Support training in and implementation of Social and Behavioral Research Methodology in HIV research, continuing the provision of technical assistance to CFAR investigators, supporting the Junior Investigator Group that mentors socio-behavioral postdoctoral researchers in HIV, and conducting training workshops in Qualitative Methods and Epidemic Modeling. A central tenet of our core is that we have a responsibility to develop the capacity of research to be more relevant to communities.
Social and behavioral research has an important role to play in comprehensive HIV Prevention, and improving the cascade of HIV care. This core provides support for a wide range of qualitative and quantitative socio-behavioral research methods in the UW CFAR, and coordinates translational research collaborations with the Community Advisory Board, and Public Health Departments in the region.
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