The session "New Frontiers in HIV Prevention Sciences" offered a riveting array of models and lessons learned from the ever-evolving field of research on HIV prevention technologies and interventions.
Julia Kim, from the School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand, discussed HIV prevention oriented towards structural determinants, such as gender-based violence, and how to measure an intervention's impact. Inherent in this model is a shift away from the individual level to that of the population. Her research focused on women who received training in gender inequalities and HIV while also participating in a microfinance program. This allowed for prolonged and consistent contact with the research group, more so than in a clinical setting. The research demonstrated that change in a factor such as gender-based violence, which is often deemed to be "too culturally entrenched and resistant to change," is not only possible but measurable.
The widespread impact of such interventions occurs through scale-up to a broader base of people. Ashokh Alexander, Director of Avahan India AIDS Initiative, added how the integration of business models aided in crafting research to scale from the outset, and she emphasized the importance of designing, managing, and evaluating to scale. Building research into program implementation allows for service users to be data gatherers as well, which panelist Jeffrey O'Malley of United Nations Development Programme echoed, and allows for more immediate assessment of program impact to identify areas in need of modification.
Tom Coates, Associate Director of the UCLA AIDS Institute, cautioned that not all forms of information are equally useful, and that we can neither rely exclusively on randomized controlled testing nor on self-reported data to measure the impact of prevention technologies and interventions.
Such HIV research has long posed unique challenges since the data is often difficult to quantify. The panelists briefly reviewed the evolution in the framing and conceptualization of that research which has led to better planning and design of interventions.
