North Carolina Central University has teamed with the pharmaceutical manufacturer ViiV to lower the impact of HIV in African American and other minority populations.
The initiative will develop implementation science capacity at NCCU and train NCCU students in implementation science research, which integrates new research findings into development of health policy and clinical practice. The program will also leverage NCCU’s partnerships with RTI International, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The goal is to improve the quality of medical treatment for people of color and reduce health disparities, said Deepak Kumar, director of NCCU’s Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute (BBRI) and RCMI Center for Health Disparities Research.
“Evidence-based interventions tailored to vulnerable populations and delivered in a culturally sensitive manner are more likely to improve the overall health of individuals and the community,” Kumar said.
The researchers are working to reduce the number of minorities and underserved populations contracting HIV, which has killed 7 million in the United States since 1981. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, although most have seen their condition improve in response to effective antiviral medications. Approximately 40,000 Americans are newly diagnosed each year.
“We think it’s important to collaborate with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) such as NCCU to promote the development of researchers from diverse backgrounds,” said Tammeka Evans, director of Global Public Health and Innovation at ViiV Healthcare, a company solely dedicated to developing new medicines for HIV. “The implementation science research will focus on removing the unequal differences in care received by people of color, which is critical to addressing the HIV epidemic in the United States.”
People of color and other minorities are typically hit harder by HIV and other chronic diseases for a variety of reasons: from prevalence of preexisting conditions to economic or other barriers to following a medical protocol.
NCCU researchers and students will receive training and mentoring in implementation science activities that can be used to develop programs in underserved communities. Examples might include drive-up diagnostic testing sites for certain communities or training in healthy behaviors to prevent chronic diseases or contain the spread of HIV.
Researchers and practitioners from NCCU’s health-disparities-focused RCMI Center and the HOPE initiative, the UNC Center for Aids Research, and Duke University will work with NCCU faculty, postdoctoral and graduate students on evidence-based research implementation techniques and establish a pilot program for future implementation science study and engagement.
