Projects

The Forum for Collaborative HIV Research convened its 2015 National Summit on HCV and HIV Diagnosis, Prevention, and Access to Care on June 4th-6th in Arlington, Virginia. The mission of the Summit is to support improvement in HCV and HIV testing, prevention, and linkage to care in the United States. Present at this meeting were the nation's public health scientific and advocacy leadership to discuss state-of-the-art mechanisms and initiatives to support the "National HIV/AIDS Strategy" and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' "Action Plan for the Prevention, Care, and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis".

We did a little bit of everything during the Summit. One of our main duties was to take notes during the breakout sessions and help prepare the rapporteur slides. It was interesting to see how a conference worked from an organizer's perspective. Personally, I learned an incredible amount from just being in the room and listening to people speak. It was an amazing experience to be among some of the leaders in the field, hear about current issues, and see public health in action.

2015 NATIONAL SUMMIT ON HCV AND HIV DIAGNOSIS, PREVENTION AND ACCESS TO CARE

June 4-6, 2015

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Click here to download the full Call for Abstracts
Abstract submission is now closed. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions related to abstract sbmissions.

The 2015 National Summit on HCV and HIV Diagnosis, Prevention and Access to Care, chaired by Dr. John G. Bartlett, Dr. Kenneth H. Mayer, and Dr. Veronica Miller will be held June 4-6, 2015 at The Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA.

Deadline for Abstract Submission: March 9, 2015

The mission of the 2015 Summit is to support improvement in HCV and HIV testing, prevention, and linkage to care in the United States. The nation’s public health scientific and advocacy leadership will meet to discuss state-of-the-art mechanisms and initiatives to support the “National HIV/AIDS Strategy” and the HHS “Action Plan for the Prevention, Care and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis.”

Our goal is to assemble new and relevant information about the implementation of routine or expanded testing activities furthering prevention and access, linkage and retention in care in the U.S.

Abstracts should enhance sharing of information and experiences in different settings, encourage collaboration, and support the scale-up of services. We welcome original abstracts as well as abstracts presented within the past year. All accepted abstracts will be published in the Forum’s online journal, Annals of the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research and presented as posters. A select number of abstracts will be chosen for oral presentations. Priority registration will be available to accepted abstract presenters.

We solicit abstracts in the areas of HCV and HIV, fitting one of the following four categories.

Routine and Expanded Testing
Prevention Models
Outcomes and Impact Evaluation
Access, Linkage and Retention in Care

A.   Routine and Expanded Testing
Activities designed to increase HCV and/or HIV testing in various clinical and other settings and address challenges and opportunities for routine/expanded testing access (including policy, legal, and financial issues, training, systems development, buy-in, capacity and resources, federal harmonization, and health care reform)

Suggested topics include:
·        Implementation models for routine and expanded testing
- To highlight the state of the art in implementation of HCV and/or HIV testing in various clinical and non-clinical settings
- To examine how cohort based HCV testing is being implemented in a variety of settings
- To highlight innovation, best practices and lessons learned from non-traditional settings that have implemented HCV and HIV testing
·        Policies for routine and expanded testing
- To examine how current policies may facilitate or impede the implementation of testing, steps needed to change policy to improve diagnosis and linkage to care, and best practices for expanding testing under existing policies.
·        Financing for routine and expanded testing
- To identify needed resources to improve HCV and HIV testing
- To examine ways in which opportunities under the Affordable Care Act will affect testing for HCV and HIV
·        Technology and Testing Algorithms
- To identify how the latest developments in diagnostic testing technologies can support the goals of the VHAP and NHAS
- To review how the 2010 CDC HIV testing algorithm and the 2014 HCV testing algorithm will be implemented across the US
- To examine the role of HCV and HIV point of care (POC) tests and their impact on testing uptake

B.   Prevention Models
Prevention models and services associated with HCV and/or HIV testing
Suggested topics include:
·        Implementation models for prevention
- To examine best practices for HIV prevention efforts in clinical and non-clinical settings
- To highlight the ways in which individual, group, and community–level prevention activities can increase the uptake of testing and improve access to care services
- To examine the impact of measures to reduce occupational exposure and transmission of HCV
- To examine the impact of HCV prevention services within HIV prevention programs with a special focus on IDU and incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.
·        Policies for prevention models
- To identify policy and legislative successes and impediments to the support of prevention activities delivered in the context of HCV and HIV testing programs
·        Financing for prevention models
- To examine ways in which opportunities under the Affordable Care Act affect prevention efforts and services associated with HCV and HIV testing services
·        PrEP and PEP
- To describe demonstration projects or programs for the delivery of Pre- and Post-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV prevention
·        Treatment as Prevention
- To describe efforts aimed at preventing HIV and HCV transmission through increased testing and linkage to care and early initiation of therapy

C.    Outcomes and Impact Evaluation
Recommended practices to measure the success of testing, prevention and linkage and engagement in care programs with an emphasis on modeling, evaluation, and cost-effectiveness analyses

Suggested topics include:
·        Modeling outcomes and impacts
- To measure the burden of HCV, the impact of HCV detection, linkage to care and treatment on the sequelae of liver disease and cancer
- To examine the implementation of performance measures and quality improvement through use of electronic medical records (EMR) and other tools
- To evaluate the impact and progress in achieving the goals the VHAP and the NHAS
- To model HIV prevention efforts including routine HIV testing, PrEP, Treatment as Prevention, etc.
- To measure and reduce health disparities and stigma
• To improve collection of HCV-related information in health surveys and other data gathering tools to help monitor health disparities in various settings and populations
·        Surveillance
- To identify and validate measures that strengthen the capacity of state and local health departments to collect a core set of HCV data
- To identify and validate measures that assess and improve linkage and retention in HIV care
·        Cost-effectiveness
- To assess the impact of screening for acute and chronic HCV infection in different populations
- To assess the impact of routine HIV screening, Treatment as Prevention, PrEP, and early linkage to care
- To assess the impact of routine HCV screening, treatment and prevention in HCV mono-infected and HCV/HIV co-infected individuals

D.   Access, Linkage and Retention in Care
Models for linking individuals to HCV and/or HIV care; engaging persons who are aware of their status but not currently in care; strategies for retaining individuals in care and optimizing use of available therapies; and addressing the adequacy of the HCV and HIV care workforce and clinic capacity

Suggested topics include:
·        Implementation models
- To identify ways in which persons identified through testing can be more effectively linked to and engaged in care
- To identify ways to maximize health outcomes and retention for patients currently engaged in care
- To identify the role of community clinics in managing persons identified with HCV
·        Policies for improving access, linkage and retention in care
- To identify strategies at the federal, state and local levels that will improve access to services
- To assess the impact of the VHAP and NHAS on efforts to improve linkage and retention in care
·        Financing access, linkage and retention in care
- To identify needed resources to improve linkage and retention in care
- To examine opportunities under the Affordable Care Act for improving access, linkage and retention in care
·        Workforce capacity
- To identify efforts to recruit, educate and motivate new providers
- To identify mechanisms to overcome the challenges inherent in providing care, including addressing clinic capacity and workforce issues
- To describe successful strategies for building provider capacity and improving treatment outcomes, such as telemedicine and other approaches
·        Continuum of diagnosis, linkage, treatment and viral suppression
- To describe local distributions of persons diagnosed with HIV, linked to care, retained in care, and achieving viral suppression
- To describe local distributions of persons diagnosed with HCV, or HIV/HCV co-infection who are linked and retained in care, and achieved sustained virologic response

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
The format for abstracts is as follows.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORMAT
(Abstracts must be broken down into Objectives, Methods Results, and Conclusions, and there is an overall limit of 400 words for these 4 sections)

TITLE: Use a Short and Concise Title that Indicates the Content of the Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Describe the purpose of the program, project or study.

METHODS: Briefly describe the methods or strategies used in the program, project or study.

RESULTS: Describe the objective outcomes of the program, project or study. Include data, if available.

CONCLUSIONS: State the conclusions reached as a result of the program.

Authors will be contacted by email of abstracts acceptance and authors of accepted abstracts will receive the Summit registration information. All accepted abstracts will be presented as poster presentation. In addition, selected abstracts will be chosen for oral presentations.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Registration will open April 6, 2015 and more information will be available on the 2015 Summit webpage.

Registration: April 6 through May 13th

	Full registration: (includes 2 nights hotel, all meals during conference and access to all sessions)	Commuter registration: (includes all meals during conference and access to all sessions)
*Individuals from academic institutions or not-for-profit organizations*	$900.00	$500.00
*Individuals from Industry*	$1,600.00	$1,000.00

Registration fees increase May 14th.
Late Registration: May 14th to June 4th

	Full registration: (includes 2 nights hotel, all meals during conference and access to all sessions)	Commuter registration: (includes all meals during conference and access to all sessions)
*Individuals from academic institutions or not-for-profit organizations*	$1,200.00	$800.00
*Individuals from Industry*	$2,000.00	$1,400.00