The Scientific Working and Interest Groups comprise of Tennessee CFAR members with diverse expertise in scientific discovery, clinical care, public health, biostatistics, informatics, and community engagement. The SWG and Interest Groups have synergistic and overlapping goals to improve HIV care at the population and individual level, respectively. These groups will drive research and implementation strategies to deliver on the Tennessee CFAR mission to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS.

• To create a community of researchers and practitioners working to address SDoH for people living with or vulnerable to HIV

Tennessee ranks among the top 20 states for rates of newly diagnosed HIV and persons living with diagnosed HIV. Memphis (Shelby County) is one of 48 county geographic hotspots of HIV transmission. In 2019 the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) proposed a new initiative, Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, which aims to reduce HIV incidence by 75% in 5 years and at least 90% in 10 years. Key strategies will include diagnosis of HIV early after infection, initiation of rapid and effective treatment to achieve viral suppression, protection from HIV using evidence-based interventions including PrEP, and rapid detection and response to HIV clusters to interrupt transmission. This CFAR’s mission, to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS in Tennessee and to generalize these benefits nationally and globally, aligns with Ending the HIV Epidemic. Unfortunately, HIV disproportionately impacts some populations, which NIH has designated health disparity populations. The DH-SWG comprises >70 CFAR members with diverse expertise in scientific discovery, clinical care, public health, biostatistics, informatics, and community engagement whose overarching goal is to address HIV-related disparities, galvanized around ending the epidemic. The SWG has successfully brought together investigators from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Meharry Medical College (MMC), Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), and community-based organizations. The SWG and CFAR cores have been mutually beneficial. For example, the Administrative Core (AC) has supported SWG members to attend national CFAR meetings, and SWG members have supported the AC-led Works in Progress sessions. Going forward, the work of the SWG will be guided by a prioritized research agenda aligned with the expertise and interest of its members as well as needs assessments from state/local health departments and community-based organizations; these include the opioid epidemic, PrEP/HIV continuum of care, and non-AIDS comorbidities. Work will further be guided by the following objectives:

• To share research ideas and create opportunities for collaboration
  To identify needs to enhance SDOH research for our community
  To exchange best practices in the measurement or and intervention on SDOH
  To create a resource library to share tools for measurement of SDOH

• Regularly scheduled DH-SWG meetings to:
  • Review data and concepts in the local, national, and international HIV health disparities arena;
  • Identify HIV health disparities issues in Tennessee;
  • Identify health policy issues directly impacting HIV health disparities;
  • Identify ways to fill gaps in resources and expertise.
• Discussing and planning targeted interventions to improve HIV health disparities with stakeholders at:
  • Semi-annual Tennessee Dept. of Health Statewide HIV meetings;
  • Semi-annual Tennessee Dept. of Health Statewide HIV Community Planning Group meetings;
  • Annual institutional seminars and Developmental Core retreats;
  • Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health program meetings for PEPFAR, HPTN, and R01 work.
• Publishing TDH data on HIV health disparities
• Expanding and prioritizing HIV health disparities research in Tennessee and globally.
• Submitting multi-investigator grant applications to NIH and CDC to support HIV health disparities research