application abstract) The National Conference on Women and HIV: Defining Female Paradigms for Research, Prevention and Care will take place February 18-21, 1997 at the Pasadena Convention Center near Los Angeles, California. This national conference will provide the first opportunity on the West Coast for a scientific exchange on HIV disease among women. Over 1,500 leading clinical and prevention researchers, community providers, policy makers, and infected women will explore innovative models for biomedical and behavioral research, HIV prevention and clinical care. This conference will provide an arena for leading scientists nationwide to present state-of-the-art research findings and to focus future investigations of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among women. Conference presentations and discussions will showcase ground breaking research such as national and regional findings from the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) and will highlight the need to conduct further scientific research on the unique ways in which women are impacted by this disease. The national conference will address HIV disease among adolescent and adult women using three tracts: (1) Science: Clinical, Basic and Epidemiology; (2) Behavioral Science: Prevention, Education, Quality of Life, and Psychosocial; and (3) Public Policy: Ethics and Advocacy. Session topics within the tracts have been selected to meet nationally identified needs and to address current and anticipated issues focusing national discussions of HIV disease among women. A National Board and a Los Angeles-based working consortium, the Local Working Group are directing the conference's organizational and program development process. These Boards are composed of leading researchers, policy makers, representatives from government agencies, directors of national and regional prevention organizations and advocacy groups as well as infected individuals. The conference proposes to bring together community providers, scientific researchers, policy makers, behavioral and social scientists, as well as infected women. Mutual dialogues will be encouraged by the conference format. New investigators will be recruited specifically, in an effort to bring new ideas into the area of HIV disease in women Social scientists will be encouraged to meet and speak with basic scientific researchers, and with infected women, in an attempt to move the field forward in an interdisciplinary manner. The conference will provide a critically needed national educational forum for large numbers of health care providers and an opportunity to urge the development of collaborative partnerships among researchers, patients and providers.
