Digital Health Empowerment, Inc — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase II: NICHD

Description

ABSTRACTAdolescents face increased HIV riskinfrequent testinginconsistent linkage to careand a lack of prevention related knowledgeWe propose to address this by completing and evaluating the Mobile Augmented ScreeningMAStool to increase youth HIV testing via a tablet based intervention in clinical settingsand then use text messages to facilitate linkage to care for those who test positiveand deliver ongoing prevention education via text message to those who test negativeMany adolescents and young adults at greatest risk for HIV are unlikely to have access to primary careand therefore have limited access to HIV testing and prevention educationWhen young people are offered testingmany decline because they believeperhaps incorrectlythey are not at risk or because they fear being stigmatizedOur proposed MAS will enable care providers to privately and discretely offer routine HIV testing and counselingincluding prevention educationto high needdiverse adolescent and young adult populations at a low costFurtherbecause federal law requires public and private insurers to cover routine HIV testinghealthcare providers who use our proposed MAS to test an increased number of youth can potentially generate significant additional revenue through increased insurance reimbursementsThe MAS will consist ofcomponentsA tablet based intervention including a brief videoapproximatelyminutesdesigned to increase adolescent HIV testingautomated text messages to facilitate linkage to care for those who test positiveand text based education for those who test negative or decline testingOur team has created multiple NIH funded interventions to increase HIV testing among patients in high volumeurban emergency departmentsEDsPatientsincluding youth who initially declined testingcited the privacy and clarity of our technology based approach as reasons they ultimately agreed to test for HIVDuring the Phase I grant period we conducted formative research with young ED patientsand then created the video portion of the MASPreliminary evaluations indicate the video was highly acceptableled to significant knowledge increasesand encouraged testingWe now plan an effectiveness trial during the Phase II periodDigital Health Empowerment is a minority and woman owned SBCPrincipals So Young Oh and Ian David AronsonPh Dhave more thanyears experience developing technology products togetherincluding videobased health interventions and other digital contentfor commercialnon profitand university clientsWe seek to build upon this expertisealong with the initial success of our Phase I worktocomplete full intervention developmentand evaluate the product through a randomized controlled trial with ED patients agedNas well as qualitative interviews with a subset of young patientsnand ED staffnBecause adolescents and young adults face markedly increased HIV risk yet frequently do not testwe propose to complete the Mobile Augmented ScreeningMAStool designed to increase HIV testingand to facilitate linkage to care and ongoing prevention educationThis tool will help clinicians address undiagnosed youth HIVand enable young patients to receive much needed treatment and avoid unknowingly transmitting infectionOur product is designed to help existing program staff reach an increased number of clientsand to improve public health by encouraging reluctant young patients to accept important HIV testing and care they may otherwise decline