NIH VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
Community Voices: Forging the Path Forward for HIV Self-testing and Personalized Viral Load Monitoring

Event Description

November 1-2, 2023
 

Agenda
Participant Biographies
Workshop Glossary

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research (OAR) held a virtual community-oriented workshop on November 1-2, 2023, focused on advancing the development of HIV diagnostics and technologies. For more information, read the workshop Executive Summary.

Goals

Quality HIV testing and viral load monitoring are critical to prevent, care for, and treat HIV and AIDS. However, gaps in access to rapid at-home on-demand HIV self-testing and viral load monitoring tools are keeping many people with HIV from easily monitoring their status to manage their care. Feedback from the HIV community – advocates and community organizers – underscores the need to make these tools affordable and accessible.

This workshop:

1. Solicited feedback from HIV community organizers on needs and preferences related to HIV self-testing and viral load monitoring products
2. Examined cutting-edge opportunities for advancing the next generation of rapid, at-home, and point-of-care diagnostics
3. Included input from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization on considerations for increasing access to diagnostics

NIH is committed to engaging members of the HIV community early and often as it invests in research to provide more people with the tools they need to be aware of their HIV status and, if diagnosed with HIV, to monitor their viral load. With participation from an array of partners, this workshop enabled NIH to gather feedback and input to ensure alignment of its HIV research program with community needs. This workshop was consistent with NIH’s commitment to reducing the incidence of HIV.

NIH OAR thanks members of the NIH HIV/AIDS Executive Committee and the Prevention Access Campaign for their input on this workshop.

Thank you to all the collaborators that made this possible:

• Diane Lawrence, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• Emmanuel Mongodin, Ph.D., National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• Fatima Jones, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• Vasundhara Varthakavi, Ph.D., National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Shawn Mulvaney, Ph.D., National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
• Geetha Bansal, Ph.D., Fogarty International Center (FIC) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Sai Majji, Ph.D., Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Naana Cleland, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• Michael Stirratt, Ph.D., National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Gregory Greenwood, Ph.D., National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Raul Mandler, M.D., National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Speakers

A partial list of speakers may be found on the agenda page. Information about the speakers may be found on the Participant Biographies page. They come from the following groups: HIV researchers, advocates, community organizers, product developers, regulators, and funders.

Who Is Encouraged To Attend?

• Members of the HIV community interested in HIV self-testing and viral load monitoring
• HIV researchers
• HIV technology and device developers
• Industry consultants

Presentations

Pending presenters’ permission, presentations will be made available upon request after the workshop.