The Candidate is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She has a special interest in HIV prevention and behavior change interventions. Her career goals are to become a productive independent academic investigator who can apply rigorous research methods to design and implement HIV prevention interventions. Dr. Hightow proposes tutorials and formal didactics, mentored research, and professional development activities to help her obtain the necessary methodological expertise and skills to excel as an independent investigator and develop a clinical research focus in HIV prevention. The University of North Carolina, Infectious Diseases Division has an established record of conducting successful clinical HIV research. Inflexxion, Inc located in Newton, Massachusetts has extensive expertise in the development of health care intervention websites for use in college student populations. A team of productive and successful researchers will guide Dr. Hightow in her research and career development. This team has a strong foundation in HIV risk and prevention (Drs. Adimora, Kaplan and Leone), qualitative methods and behavioral theory (Drs. Ribisl, Ross, Malebranche and Tate) and Internet intervention design and evaluation (Drs. Ribisl, Lord, Ross and Tate). Despite the evidence that Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) college students face troubling levels of risk for HIV infection, an extensive review of the literature failed to reveal a single empirically evaluated intervention designed specifically for BMSM college students. Use of the Internet to provide treatment and interventions has been shown to be acceptable to MSM and college students for a variety of health conditions and risk behaviors. In addition, the Internet is playing a more important role for identifying and meeting sex partners, particularly for MSM. The research study aims for this proposal are: (1) To characterize BMSM students' needs and perceptions regarding HIV and AIDS prevention by using a combination of in-depth individual interviews and focus groups, (2) to analyze the qualitative data gathered during the formative studies described in AIM 1 to modify an existing intervention designed by Inflexxion to develop a unique culturally competent, web-based Internet prevention site, and (3) to conduct pilot studies of the intervention web site at 4 Universities located in the Raleigh-Durham Metropolitan Area to evaluate the website in two areas (1) feasibility for conducting a future clinical trial; and (2) end-user satisfaction. A successful Internet intervention for BMSM college students will have enormous advantages including easy portability for use on any college nationwide. In summary, an Internet based intervention has the potential to reach an at-risk segment of the population that would not otherwise seek health care or be targeted for prevention activities. ? ? ?
