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Prevention Institute: Prevention’s Potential: Moving from Promise to Practice by SYNCing Communities with Strategies
12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Despite steady uptake in the U.S., use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) remains lowest among communities most impacted by HIV. Wide-scale implementation of PrEP and other biomedical interventions for these populations at the state and local level is critical to reducing new infections and ending the epidemic in the United States. In light of this challenge, the Prevention Institute will engage participants in discussion around the structural, societal, and individual-level factors affecting implementation of and access to HIV prevention activities. Clients, providers, advocates, public health practitioners and policymakers at the Prevention Institute will synchronize innovative strategies to improve health outcomes in the populations most burdened by HIV.
SYNC points:
Black Women’s Health Institute
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
During this institute, we will discuss Black women’s experiences with racism, both historically and currently, as well as the invisible structural barriers that facilitate racism and stigma. This session will unveil how these experiences may play a role in Black women’s mental and sexual health, including how Black women access and engage with healthcare providers and their participation in clinical trials, and the uptake of biomedical advances available to reduce sexually transmitted infections including HIV. The Institute will address:
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Fiscal Health Institute: Syncing Fiscal Health with Systems Health
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
The Fiscal Health Institute at SYNC 2019 convenes program and fiscal managers of Ryan White programs and healthcare non-profits to build and practice fiscal management skills. Through a series of sessions, participants will explore strategies for maintaining program compliance, maximizing funding opportunities, and expanding service delivery. The training will highlight innovative strategies for sustaining services and responding to the evolving financial landscape of HIV care programs.
The sessions will discuss:
Integrated Planning Institute: Enhancing Structure and Synchronicity for Integrated HIV Prevention and Care Planning
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
HIV planning has long been an integral part of ensuring comprehensive
HIV planning has long been an integral part of ensuring comprehensive delivery of HIV services in communities. Recently, health departments and community implementers have been faced with syncing HIV services and programs while still bound by fiscal requirements and legislative regulations. At the Integrated HIV Planning Institute, health departments, community planners and service implementers will have the opportunity to sync on a variety of topics to improve planning and implementation of integrated HIV prevention and care services.
In order to get to zero new infections, jurisdictions must implement and evaluate comprehensive, integrated HIV strategies to achieve health outcomes. Learn new approaches from federal funders and peers on assessing planning effectiveness, monitoring integration, and discuss approaches for making integration organic.
This institute will address:
Opioids/HIV/HCV Institute: Ending the Epidemics: Addressing the Intersection of HCV and Opioid Use
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other infectious disease, and HCV infections have been rising at an alarming rate since 2010. The impact of the opioid epidemic on new HCV infections is significant and undeniable. Without increased implementation of harm reduction services (e.g. syringe services programs), comprehensive services for people with opioid addiction (e.g. Medication-Assisted Treatment), and expanded access to life-saving HCV treatment for people who inject drugs (PWID), the goal to eliminate HCV in the U.S. may not be accomplished.
The HCV & Opioid Institute will convene clinicians, harm reduction and prevention specialists, educators, and advocates to discuss the intersecting hepatitis C and opioid epidemics and offer thought-provoking perspectives on engaging people with substance use disorders in HCV testing, care, care and treatment. Learn evidence-based strategies for supporting patients who inject drugs in HCV treatment, approaches to integrate patient-centered HCV education into substance abuse programs, and interdisciplinary models for HCV care and treatment for PWID.
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Transgender Institute: Strengthening Prevention and Care for Transgender Communities
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Transgender individuals should have access to quality prevention, care, and treatment. However, transgender people continue to encounter significant barriers health care: discrimination/stigma, lack of culturally competent providers, unequal access to health coverage, etc. The Transgender Health Institute is designed to address the structural and social determinants of health impacting this community. Promoting an urgency for health equity, the Institute will cover engagement, health care access, and advocacy.
Topics to be addressed:
Opening Plenary: The State of HIV, HCV, STI and LGBT Health
The opening plenary is designed to level-set SYNC 2019 attendees on the current state of HIV, HCV, STI, and LGBT health by providing clinical, epidemiological, and structural updates for each of SYNChronicity’s four focus areas.
Confirmed speakers include:
Session 1: Community Testing and Initiation of ARV’s Following a Positive Test
This session will discuss local HIV testing programs that support immediate initiation of ARVs, and review a national partnership that facilitates non-traditional testing.
SYNC Points:
Session 1: Ryan White and 340B: Strategies for Managing Pharmacies, Revenue, and Compliance
Through discounts on certain drug purchases, 340B Drug Pricing Programs can help Ryan White-funded agencies and other eligible organizations expand their service categories and provide services to more patients. With this opportunity come additional compliance concerns and fiscal management requirements. This session will discuss best practices for Ryan White-funded organizations managing pharmacy relations and program income related to 340B programs.
SYNC Points:
Session 1: Mentor, Lead, Succeed: Building Alliances Across Ages
Youth are the faces and doers of the future. As veteran leaders age, youth will take over, but are we ready? During this session, attendees will hear from youth and adults working together as mentors and mentees to create spaces and opportunities for youth-adult alliance building and the development of the next generation of leaders in the HIV ecosystem. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in breakout sessions to connect with their peers, consider best practices for mentoring young people or being mentored into leadership roles and develop organizational sustainability.
SYNC Points:
After participating in the session, attendees will:
Session 1: HCV Elimination: What Will It Take?
This session will review national-level, jurisdiction-level and micro-level strategies and approaches to hepatitis C elimination.
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Session 1: Tobacco Harm Reduction Efforts in the LGBT Community
This session examines tobacco use in the LGBT Community. Presenters will give examples of harm reduction strategies and counseling techniques focused on smoking cessation. This session is designed to sync conference attendees with behavioral health and harm reduction programs available to improve LGBT health outcomes.
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Session 1: Interventions to Engage Young MSM of Color in the HIV Prevention and Care Continuum
This session is designed to address the social and structural barriers to prevention and care for MSM and transgender individuals.
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Session 1: HIV Criminalization and Activism
This session will discuss and provide strategies for addressing one of the most extreme manifestation of HIV stigma, which is criminalization. Criminalization reform efforts continue to grow around the world. These grassroots activism efforts are informed by expert strategy and the latest research.
SYNC Points:
Session 1: African Americans and PrEP: Overcoming the Uptake Challenges
The first PrEP Track session explores PrEP experiences among two specific populations affected by HIV – African American men and women, and women of color. Participants will learn about awareness and acceptance of PrEP, specific challenges to uptake, and strategies to increase PrEP use in these populations.
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Session 1: Accepting and Becoming Yourself: A Journey to Well-Being
This session will focus on how social determinants of health affect women’s ability to practice self-care, seek and receive quality care, and navigate the process of ‘becoming’ across their lifetime.
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Session 1:STI Testing and Treatment in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP)
The session includes an overview of the current epidemiology regarding STIs among PLWH, an overview of current HRSA HAB initiatives to increase testing and treatment of STIs, an overview of the National STD and HIV Curricula and other HRSA HAB and CDC resources, and a presentation by Fenway Health, a Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipient on a model of integrating STI services within an HIV clinic.
SYNC Points: Understanding the current state of STIs in PLWH, Knowledge of current HRSA and CDC initiatives focused on combating STI, Identify innovative clinical and systems level approaches to increased STI testing and treatment in PLWH
Speakers:
“End HIV Plan” by 2030
During his State of the Union speech, President Trump announced his administration’s plan to end HIV transmission by 2030. This lunch plenary session will feature the principals who designed the plan discussing and detailing the plan’s approach, scope, strategies, and implementation.
Confirmed speakers include:
SYNC Points:
Session 2: Integrating CQI to Improve Health Outcomes for People Living with HIV Disparities
CQI programs aim to improve the quality of health for people by identifying what should be addressed and the strategies necessary to improve those areas. This session will focus on reducing clinical and behavioral health disparities in an effort to optimize HIV care and treatment.
SYNC Points:
Session 2: Innovative Investments of Program Income
Session 2: Addressing the Needs of People Living with HIV Over 50
This session will provide attendees with multidimensional presentations around the experiences of PLWH over 50. In hearing from a variety of voices and perspectives, attendees will discuss different strategies that the NYC Health Department (DOHMH) used to identify the most pressing needs of older people living with HIV in New York City (NYC) in order to inform changes to the service system for OPLWH, identify psychosocial burdens for OPLWH, and better understand the intersections and convergences of the experiences of OPLWH and younger people living with HIV.
SYNC Points:
Session 2: Strategies to Identify, Diagnose, and Treat Hepatitis C Among At-Risk Populations
Session 2: LGBTQ Health Equity
This session examines the inequalities between healthcare access in LGBT communities compared to non-LGBT communities. Presenters will show the importance of developing jurisdictional health assessment data tracking. Sessions are designed to sync healthcare providers to healthcare recipients.
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Session 2: Defining Masculinity in MSM Communities of Color
This session explores the complexities of masculinity and stigma among gay and bisexual men of color.
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Session 2: Putting Talk into Action to Foster Civic Engagement
This session will define and detail the creation of a civic health initiative that promotes advocacy and outreach. The session will also focus on the identification of inequities and how to create a plan of action to address inequities.
SYNC Points:
Session 2: Using Data to Implement PrEP
In the second PrEP Track session, participants will discuss how epidemiological and client-level data can be leveraged to increase PrEP uptake, by using strategies from Data to Care processes. Additionally, participants will be able to describe an instance of PrEP implementation in an urban setting.
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Session 2: Remove The Bandages: IPV among Women Living with HIV
This workshop focuses on the stories of three women living with HIV and their experience and perseverance in overcoming intimate partner and domestic violence. The trauma of violence impacts women living with HIV in their health and safe disclosure of serostatus. Additionally, criminalization keeps women in domestic violence situations. Removing the bandages means understanding the power of personal testimony for healing, and taking brave steps forward to find support and resources.
SYNC Points:
Session 2: Strategic, Data-Informed HIV Technical Assistance for Federally Qualified Health Centers -The Southeast Practice Transformation Expansion Project
This presentation reviews the collaborations among Southeast Regional AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETCs) through funds from Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) and Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) advanced Practice Transformation at 16 health centers to promote primary care integration of HIV testing, linkage to care, and prevention at HRSA-funded health centers in the southeastern United States. The presentation will describe key lessons learned from the AETC PT project, P4C, and the collaboration between BPHC and HAB through the Southeast AETC.
SYNC Points:
Speakers:
With an overwhelming number of outstanding abstract submissions, we are offering special SYNC sessions on critical, crosscutting topics that are relevant to HIV, HCV, STI, and LGBT health. Topics include telemedicine, climate change, social determinants of health, and sexual health as well as education related to commercial sex workers and incarcerated populations. You will certainly find a SYNC session to pique your interest. SYNC sessions will be held Monday, April 15, 2019 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM as follows:
Disaster/Climate Change
Within the last few years, natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires have further threatened the access and quality of health services for populations that were already disenfranchised. This session will spark conversations on identifying gaps and support, in order to strengthen future relief efforts.
SYNC Points:
Telemedicine
Clients that have challenges accessing in-person health services are increasingly able to receive remote health services. This session will focus on the technological advances that allow multidisciplinary provider groups to collaborate, screen, and engage clients.
SYNC Points:
Corrections
A significant number of incarcerated persons within the US prison system are living with HIV. This session will discuss educational and external linkage programs to reduce HIV transmission and recidivism.
SYNC Points:
Trauma
This session will present two innovative trauma informed models: one is designed to build staff competence and inform management processes, and the other is a client-centered, transitional housing model for YMSM living with HIV.
SYNC Points:
CQI – Continuous Quality Improvement
Sexual Health
Faith
SYNC Points:
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health are conditions in the places, where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a range of health risks and outcomes. This session will highlight programs that address these conditions.
SYNC Points:
Social Media
SYNC Points:
Biomedical/Molecular Surveillance
This session will focus on identifying potential transmission clusters amongst individuals in DC to help infer otherwise unknown transmission modes and provide insight for more targeted prevention and intervention strategies.
SYNC Points:
Sex Workers
Safety for LGBT Communities
Breakfast Plenary: Driving HIV, HCV, STI, and LGBT Health Outcomes Through Innovation
This plenary will present innovative and impactful initiatives and efforts to eliminate HIV, HCV, STIs and improve LGBT health. The 90/90/90 Fast Track Cities Initiative and U=U will be featured, along with other advances and activities. The session also will feature cities and jurisdictions successfully implementing Fast Track and U=U programming.
Speakers include:
Session 3: Breaking Down the Barriers to PrEP
Session 3: Preparing for a HRSA HAB Site Visit
SYNC Points:
Session 3: Creating Opportunities for African American Women over 50 to engage in Sexual Health Discussions
This session will explore various methods that serve to create opportunities for African-American Women over 50 to engage in discussions about sexual health, and discuss stigmas that create barriers to these conversations.
SYNC Points:
Session 3: HCV and People Who Inject Drugs
Session 3: Health Equity, Emotional Health, Sexual Health Among LGBT Populations
Session 3: Medical Care and Services to Address HIV, HCV, STI and Sexual Health
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Session 3: Advocacy on Federal and Regional Levels
Session 3: Implications of PrEP in the Real World
Session 3: To Be Announced
Lunch Plenary: SYNCing Policy & Perspectives: HIV, HCV, STI, and LGBT Advocacy
This plenary session provides an overview of the latest health care policy developments, including the Affordable Care Act, 340b activities, treatment access, and the potential of Medicare for All. The plenary also features policy leads from HIV, HCV, STI, and LGBT organizations providing updates on HIV, HCV, STI and LGBT policy developments and addressing strategies for achieving the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Viral Hepatitis Action Plan, elimination of STIs, and improved health access and equity among LGBT persons and other underserved communities. Following that, there will be a moderated panel discussion with leading community advocates from all four focus areas, providing the consumer and patient perspective on these policies and syncing these issues with advocacy.
Policy Speakers
Community Panelists
HRSA/HAB Track Poster:
Housing Disparities and HIV Outcomes
Presented by Avery Latham, Chau Nguyen, Rishelle Anthony, Harold Phillips
She Speaks: Intersection of HIV-STD/IPV
Presented by Karen Washington
Increasing Access to PrEP and Hepatitis C treatment in a Health Department Settings
Presented by Brittany Sanders
Hepatitis C in Chicago: Using A Community-Based Model to Link Post-Incarcerated Persons to Care
Presented by Ariq Cabbler
Achieving Higher HCV Seropositivity in High-Risk Communities
Presented by Tatiana Hayes
The Challenges in Providing PrEP in a Primary Care Multi-site FQHC
Presented by Douglas Janssen
Pleasure as Prevention: Kink and BDSM as HIV Prevention
Candace Moore
Bridging the Gap in Sexual Health: The Implementation of Laboratory Based STD Testing in a Community Based Organization through the Bridges 757 Collaborative
Presented by Felencia McGee
Challenges Accessing PrEP for HIV Prevention in England
Presented by Kimberly Levitt
A 28 Year History of HIV-1 Drug Resistance and Transmission in Washington, DC
Presented by Margaret Steiner
Patient-Centered Care: Improving Assessment and Management of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Patients at an Urban FQHC
Presented by Megan Honor Caine
A FOCUS on Virginia: Implementing A Statewide FOCUS Program Utilizing Regional Partnerships
Brenna Pevato
Divorceafter50.Com: An HIV/STD Prevention Randomized Controlled Trial for Divorced or Separated Older Women
Presented by Patricia Weitzman
Using Data to Improve HIV Testing & Identify Health Disparities on Long Island
Presented by Jessica Clark
Opt ut Screening for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) at Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers
Presented by Adelero Adebajo
Depression, Substance Use, and Viral Suppression Among Youth with HIV
Authored by Allison Agwu; Presented by Jerrica Li
Implementation and Evaluation of a Locator Protocol to Prevent Participant Loss to Follow-Up in an Urban Hospital-to-Community Transitional Care Program
Presented by Katherine Scott
Facing the Factors: How Face-to-Face First Encounters Promote Successful Hepatitis C Linkage to Care in an Inpatient Setting
Presented by Minh Tran
System Dynamics of a Large Emergency Department: Reviewing Missed Testing Opportunities in the Routine HIV Testing Program
Presented by Neha Patil
Housing Experiences among the LGBT Population after the Impact of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico
Luis A. Arroyo-Andujar
Hepatitis C Infection Among People Receiving HIV Medical Care in Mississippi, 2013-2014
Lee Riley
Tackling the Healthcare Cost Conversation: Identifying Unmet Needs, Experience and Affordability Surrounding HIV Care
Kathleen Gallagher
Rapid Linkage to Care Leads to Faster Undetectable Viral Loads in HIV+ Youth
Presented by Clint Steib
Addressing Social Determinants of Health for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Individuals Living with HIV in New York State to Ensure Viral Suppression
Presented by Rick Cook
My Life Through My Lens: Using a Digital photography Platform to Impact Social Change among Homeless Communities and People Living with HIV/ AIDS
Presented by Louis Carr
Restructuring Targeted Testing Based on Predictive Models and Large Scale HIV Screening
Presented by Joseph Olsen
Low Uptake of PrEP in Repeat nPEP Users
Presented by Grant Roth
Advanced Liver Disease in the Setting of Hepatitis C: A New Interdisciplinary and Inter-Service Initiative
Presented by Emily Comstock
The Significance of The SOGI (‘Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”: Screening Questionnaire Form and the Benefits of Its Implementation Presented by Christine Gomez
Syphilis and Gonorrhea Screening among US-bound Immigrants and Refugees, 2018
Presented by Priti Shah
Beyond the Birth Cohort
Presented by Andrea Oliver
Adapting and Tailoring Seeking Safety for LGBT Communities: What Works?
Presented by Queen Victoria Ortega
A Multidisciplinary Community Approach to HCV Testing and Linkage to Care
Presented by Candace Givens
HCV Linkage to Care: Lessons Learned in Alabama
Presented by Anthony Lee
Jeopardy: A HCV Trivia Game for HIV and STD Health Educators and Counselors
Presented by Andrew Reynolds
The Circle Model Cascade
Presented by Ronni Marks
Opioid Crisis in Georgia: A Community Response
Presented by Zina Age
Incentivizing Healthcare for Transgender and Non-Binary Patients
Presented by Mikayla Avery
Two-Year Evaluation of an Online Outreach Strategy to Engage in Brooklyn, New York
Presented by Anton Castellanons Usigli
HIV/AIDS in Vulnerable Populations: The Conscientious Clinician
Shirley Torho
Addressing Viral Suppression among Minority Populations
Presented by Jeremy Hyvarien
Sexual Health Education and its Impact on Sexual Minority Women
Ty Miranda
A Day with HIV: How Positively Aware Magazine Combined Story-Telling and a Photo Contest into an All-Inclusive Social Medial Anti-Stigma Campaign
Presented by Rick Guasco
Garden in a Glove: Exploring Adherence through Horticulture
Presented by Daniel Downer
Quantifying Health Equity work for Gay, Bisexual and other MSM…Survey Response
Presented by Andrew Zapfel
Targeting MSM, Minority Underserved Communities through Testing and Providing Effective Linkage to Care
Presented by Giselle Gallo
Mista Clean (Bathhouse Outreach)
Presented by Darne Guest
Deep in the Heart of Texas: Three Innovative Models of Transgender Healthcare, PrEP, and Sexual Healthcare Delivery in Texas
Presented by Candace Moore
PEP – Pushed Under the Rug? Some Protocols to Follow
Presented by Mario Forte
Reaching Beyond the Clinic Linkage and Rapid Start at the Hospital Bedside
Presented by Alftan Dyson
How We Win Viral Suppression in Chronic and Acute HIV Infections among People of Color
Debris Johnson
Removing Barriers and Finding Solutions for Non-Adherent HIV Positive Patients: Integrating Care Management to Achieve Viral Load Suppression Shannon Stephenson
The Strongest Link: Does Point of Entry into Care affect Linkage to Care Outcomes?
Presented by Tranekia Turner-Wentt
Implementation of Rapid HIV Treatment in Ambulatory Care Settings – Real Work Experience: Providers in NY State
Matthew Crehan-Higgans
A Summative Evaluation of the Open Arms Health Care Center’s Integrated HIV Care Services Model
Presented by Sandra Melvin
Providing Consumer-Based Solutions to Ending the Epidemic and Reducing HIV Disparities: Experience to End the Epidemic
Presented by Jennifer Lee
Implementing System Wide Policy Changes to Address Comprehensive Patient Care in an Evolving Health Care Environment
Presented by Cordella Lyon
More Than Tested, Cured
Presented by Mogjan Zare
She Speaks: Intersection of HIV-STD/IPV
Presented by Karen Washington
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