Please see the following link for more information:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAS-10-148.html
Budgets are open and not limited, but must be realistic. The time period can be 1-5 years.
Research topics that are appropriate to this FOA include, but are not limited to:
- Conduct formative research to develop and test interventions for rapidly and effectively linking individuals diagnosed with HIV to primary medical care, including but not limited to interventions that can be directly integrated within post-test HIV counseling, outreach efforts, peer-navigation programs, treatment for mental illness and substance abuse, and contingency management approaches.
- Evaluate policies and test interventions that seek to enhance enrollment in primary HIV medical care and reduce the time between HIV diagnosis and initial medical evaluation for recently diagnosed individuals, and/or time to achievement of first undetectable viral load among those for whom ART is indicated.
- Develop and test novel interventions focused on enhancing and maintaining patient retention in primary medical care, particularly within the first year following initiation of HIV care.
- Develop, refine, and validate systematic approaches toward assessing and improving patient readiness to initiate antiretroviral treatment that could be implemented in clinical practice in accordance with treatment guidelines and recommendations, such as measurement tools, placebo practice trials, or other approaches.
- Develop and test the impact of interventions designed to help patients make informed choices about voluntary ART initiation of antiretroviral medications, when clinically indicated.
- Develop and test highly feasible and low-cost clinic- or community-based interventions to improve patient adherence and persistence to antiretroviral medications in the period following ART initiation. Adherence intervention trials should assess impact on both behavioral adherence and biological outcomes such as viral suppression.
- Develop and test interventions to improve provider communication skills and messaging to patients (and patient-provider communication more generally) regarding ART initiation and early ART adherence and persistence.
- Assess organizational and systems-level factors or approaches that may impact linkage to HIV care, patient retention, antiretroviral initiation, or antiretroviral adherence to inform policy and clinic practice.
- Develop and test targeted interventions designed to reduce documented racial/ethnic, gender, and age-related disparities in HIV care engagement and treatment outcomes.
The application deadline is 9 September 2011.
