HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS Section invites abstracts and panel proposals presenting the results of scientific research and community-based interventions related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic for the next APHA Annual Meeting, November 9-13, 2002, in Philadelphia. The meeting's theme is "Putting the Public Back into Public Health."

Graduate students, new investigators (less than five years past terminal degree), community health workers, and international colleagues are especially encouraged to submit abstracts to the HIV/AIDS Section. The Section will select a small number of abstracts for special recognition. Those submitting abstracts to be considered for recognition should mark the abstract with "S" for student, "C" for community health worker, "NI" for new investigator, or "I" for international colleague, if applicable.

Contributed Abstract Sessions: Submissions are encouraged for roundtable, poster, and oral session formats; please note preferred format on the abstract submission electronic form. Topics related to the Annual Meeting theme are especially welcome. In addition to these, abstracts are encouraged in such HIV/AIDS topic areas as the following:

• Epidemiology and Surveillance:
  1. Rapid Assessment of Changes in HIV Epidemiology
  2. Social Determinants of HIV Exposure
• Financing of HIV Care and Prevention:
  1. Integrating Public Funding Streams for HIV Care and Prevention
  2. Maintaining Service Levels with Declining Public Funding
• Improving Provider Skills:
  1. Creating Provider Support Networks in Rural Areas
  2. Technical Assistance, Training, and Education Issues
• International Health:
  1. Assessing Local Needs
  2. Building Prevention and Service Infrastructures in Developing Nations
• Linking Prevention and Care:
  1. Financing Provider-Based Prevention Interventions
  2. Techniques to Assure that People Testing Positive Have Access to Care
• Other
• Politics, Policy, and Law
  1. Balancing Domestic and International Priorities for HIV Care and Prevention
  2. Improving Provider Access to Client Information under HIPAA
• Prevention:
  1. Effective Biomedical Interventions (Vaccines, Microbicides)
  2. Encouraging HIV Counseling and Testing among People at Risk
  3. Improving Lifelong Adherence with Prevention Strategies
  4. Prevention for HIV Positives
  5. Targeting HIV Prevention Community Planning
• Research and Evaluation:
  1. Evaluating the Costs and Effects of Prevention and Care Programs
  2. Evaluating Ryan White CARE Act Systems of Care
  3. Using Existing Data Sources to Assess Quality of Care
• Service Delivery
  1. Addressing Racial/Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Service Access and Use
  2. Integrating Care for HIV and Comorbidities (Mental Health, Chemical Dependency, STIs, Homelessness)
  3. Strengthening Community Responses to HIV
• Treatment
  1. Improving Adherence with Antiretroviral Regimens
  2. Emerging Strategies for Lengthening Treatment Effectiveness and Reducing Side Effects

All abstracts are reviewed on their individual merit, and the acceptance of a panel submission, even if accepted, is not a guarantee that all abstracts submitted for that session will be accepted or that they will all be scheduled together. Unless instructed otherwise, the HIV/AIDS Section program committee will automatically consider the individual abstracts from any rejected Panel Session for possible presentation in Contributed Abstract sessions. Therefore, an abstract submitted as part of a Panel Session should not be submitted as an individual contributed abstract to any other section, interest group or caucus.

Submission and Review: All contributed abstracts and panel sessions must be submitted via the submission process at the web site no later than February 6, 2002. Fax submissions are NEVER accepted. All submitted abstracts are subject to rigorous (blinded) peer review by at least three reviewers. Please remove any references to a specific institutional setting in the body of the abstract to permit blind review and ensure fairness. APHA's criteria for review will be used; these include innovation and relevance, approach/methodology, results and lessons learned. Please ensure that your "learning objectives" are identifiable and clear.

The final program will be based on peer review results with consideration for available time and space, contributed panel sessions, the program theme, and any speakers invited by the HIV/AIDS Section leadership to participate in the 2002 program.

The HIV/AIDS Section will be collaborating with other sections, SPIGs, and caucuses to sponsor sessions jointly, and some highly rated contributed abstracts may be shared.

Only listed authors who are both APHA members and registered for the Annual Meeting may present accepted work. Neither APHA nor the HIV/AIDS Section provides any financial support for authors' attendance at the Annual Meeting.

Special Instructions to Authors for Panel Submission. In addition to the submission of individual abstracts for each of the 3-4 papers submitted for a panel, an overview of the entire panel must also be submitted directly to the HIV/AIDS Section program chair, Richard Conviser, by e-mail at the address shown below. The overview should specify the title of the proposed panel, the titles and authors of the individual papers, and the abstract numbers assigned to each of these papers by the APHA's electronic abstract submission process. The contents of the panel overview are further described in the call for papers. Panel organizers can choose to include either overall learning objectives for the panel or individual learning objectives for each submitted abstract. Please do not submit the individual abstracts to Dr. Conviser. Panel paper abstracts MUST be submitted through the electronic abstract submission process before sending Dr. Conviser the overall panel description so that the abstract I.D. numbers can be cited. Additionally, each individual submitting an abstract for a panel should note that the abstract is part of a group (and should include the title of the proposed panel) in the "Comments to organizers" box that is a step in the abstract submission process.

Program Planner Contact Information:
Richard Conviser
PhD
Chief, Service Evaluation and Research Branch - HRSA
Office of Science and Epidemiology, HIV/AIDS Bureau
5600 Fishers Lane, Rm 7C07
Rockville, MD 20857
Phone: 301-443-3075
Fax: 301-443-4965
rconviser@hrsa.gov