This Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24) allows Dr. Merchant to increase significantly his mentoring activities commensurate with his areas of experience and expertise: HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, emergency medicine, and drug and other substance abuse. The award serves three vital purposes: (1) provides ?protected time? from academic, clinical and research duties so he can offer dedicated, high-quality, and consistent mentorship to further the research efforts and career development of junior faculty and other investigators in training; (2) enables him to undergo training on how to become and practice being a better mentor; and (3) permits him to receive training in dissemination and implementation science methodology, and subsequently apply these new skills to further his own research and those of his mentees, as well as mentor junior investigators in this important field. Throughout the K24 award period, he will recruit new mentees locally and nationally and provide mentorship and resources to his current and new mentees to empower their transition to independent clinician-scientists. During the first two years of the K24 award, he will attend two training programs conducted by the University of New Mexico and Brandeis University to increase his mentoring skills. During these two years he also will complete two certificate programs through the University of California, San Francisco, and Trinity College, University of Dublin, to obtain new skills in dissemination and implementation science methodology. Afterwards, he will be able to offer these new dissemination and implementation science methodology skills to his mentees. The sequence of this training is purposely arranged so that he can apply the skills obtained to the latter years of his K24 award- supported new developmental research project. This new research project facilitates the expansion and scope of his HIV screening with HIV/AIDS and HIV testing health literacy training research to new locations (community and correctional settings) and to populations potentially at higher risk for HIV acquisition (drug and other substance users, immigrants, and incarcerated persons). The four-phase, intentionally iterative project begins with the cultural and linguistic adaptation of his current HIV/AIDS and HIV testing video and pictorial brochure for Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese speakers. It progresses to developing and testing learning guides to assist English-, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese and Spanish-speakers in comprehending and applying the materials' key concepts. The project concludes with a pilot study on implementing HIV screening with HIV/AIDS and HIV testing health literacy using these materials in community and correctional settings in southern New England (drug and other substance treatment centers, community-based immigrant assistance centers, and jails/prisons) to support the submission of an R01 proposal on this topic. Throughout the K24 award period, Dr. Merchant will incorporate his mentees into this new research project as well as his current and future research studies on HIV screening with HIV/AIDS and HIV testing health literacy training.
Drug and other substance users, immigrants, and incarcerated persons comprise some of the most vulnerable populations at higher risk of HIV transmission. The overall aim of this project is to investigate novel strategies to implement HIV screening with HIV/AIDS and HIV testing health literacy training in community and correctional settings to serve these populations more effectively. The ultimate aim of this work is to identify persons who are HIV infected, link them to care, and reduce and eventually eliminate HIV transmission.
