The Implementation of a Text Messaging Intervention to Improve HIV Continuum of Care Outcomes Among Persons Recently Released From Correctional Facilities: Randomized Controlled Trial

Operationalization of Status Neutral Human Immunodeficiency Virus Care for Criminal-Legal Involved Populations

The United States has the highest number of people incarcerated in the world. Criminal-legal involved populations, including people who are incarcerated in jails and prisons and people who are under community carceral control through probation or parole are at an increased risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Increasing access to HIV testing, treatment and prevention is necessary to curb the HIV epidemic. This chapter outlines the history of HIV testing in jails and prisons and suggests a Status Neutral HIV Care Framework for improving access to HIV prevention services.

"Your Package Could Not Be Delivered": The State of Digital HIV Intervention Implementation in the US

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Despite continuous innovations and federal investment to create digital interventions addressing the HIV prevention and care continua, these interventions have not reached people in the U.S. at scale. This article reviews what is known about U.S. implementation of digital HIV interventions and presents a strategy to cross the research-to-practice chasm for these types of interventions.

RECENT FINDINGS

We conducted a narrative review of U.S.-based original research on implementation of digital HIV interventions and identified few studies reporting on implementation determinants, strategies, processes, or outcomes, particularly outside the context of effectiveness trials. To supplement the literature, in 2023, we surveyed 47 investigators representing 64 unique interventions about their experiences with implementation after their research trials. Respondents placed high importance on intervention implementation, but major barriers included lack of funding and clear implementation models, technology costs, and difficulty identifying partners equipped to deliver digital interventions. They felt that responsibility for implementation should be shared between intervention developers, deliverers (e.g., clinics), and a government entity. If an implementation center were to exist, most respondents wanted to be available for guidance or technical assistance but largely wanted less involvement. Numerous evidence-based, effective digital interventions exist to address HIV prevention and care. However, they remain "on the shelf" absent a concrete and sustainable model for real-world dissemination and implementation. Based on our findings, we call for the creation of national implementation centers, analogous to those in other health systems, to facilitate digital HIV intervention delivery and accelerate progress toward ending the U.S. epidemic.

Leveraging mHealth for the Treatment and Management of PLHIV

Objective

The objective of this systematic review was to analyze published literature from the last five years to assess facilitators and barriers to the adoption of mHealth as interventions to treat and manage HIV for PLHIV (people living with HIV). The primary outcomes were physical and mental conditions. The secondary outcomes were behavior based (substance use, care engagement, and healthy habits).

Methods

Four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect) were queried on 9/2/2022 for peer-reviewed studies on the treatment and management of PLHIV with mHealth as the intervention. The review was conducted in accordance with the Kruse Protocol and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020.

Results

Five mHealth interventions were identified across 32 studies that resulted in improvements in physical health, mental health, care engagement, and behavior change. mHealth interventions offer both convenience and privacy, meet a digital preference, increase health knowledge, decrease healthcare utilization, and increase quality of life. Barriers are cost of technology and incentives, training of staff, security concerns, digital literacy gap, distribution of technology, technical issues, usability, and visual cues are not available over the phone.

Conclusion

mHealth offers interventions to improve physical health, mental health, care engagement, and behavior for PLHIV. There are many advantages to this intervention and very few barriers to its adoption. The barriers are strong, however, and should be addressed through policy. Further research should focus on specific apps for younger versus older PLHIV, based on preferences and the digital literacy gap.

Addressing Health Inequities in Digital Clinical Trials: A Review of Challenges and Solutions From the Field of HIV Research

Clinical trials are considered the gold standard for establishing efficacy of health interventions, thus determining which interventions are brought to scale in health care and public health programs. Digital clinical trials, broadly defined as trials that have partial to full integration of technology across implementation, interventions, and/or data collection, are valued for increased efficiencies as well as testing of digitally delivered interventions. Although recent reviews have described the advantages and disadvantages of and provided recommendations for improving scientific rigor in the conduct of digital clinical trials, few to none have investigated how digital clinical trials address the digital divide, whether they are equitably accessible, and if trial outcomes are potentially beneficial only to those with optimal and consistent access to technology. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), among other health conditions, disproportionately affects socially and economically marginalized populations, raising questions of whether interventions found to be efficacious in digital clinical trials and subsequently brought to scale will sufficiently and consistently reach and provide benefit to these populations. We reviewed examples from HIV research from across geographic settings to describe how digital clinical trials can either reproduce or mitigate health inequities via the design and implementation of the digital clinical trials and, ultimately, the programs that result. We discuss how digital clinical trials can be intentionally designed to prevent inequities, monitor ongoing access and utilization, and assess for differential impacts among subgroups with diverse technology access and use. These findings can be generalized to many other health fields and are practical considerations for donors, investigators, reviewers, and ethics committees engaged in digital clinical trials.

Feasibility of a mHealth survey application for incarcerated and postrelease people living with HIV in a low-resource setting

Mobile health (mHealth) holds considerable promise as a way to give people greater control of their health information, privacy, and sharing in the context of HIV research and clinical services. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of an mHealth research application from the perspective of three stakeholder groups involved in an HIV clinical trial in Jakarta, Indonesia: (a) incarcerated people living with HIV (PLWH), (b) research assistants (RAs), and (c) research investigators. Incarcerated PLWH (n = 150) recruited from two large all-male prisons completed questionnaires, including questions about mHealth acceptability, on an mHealth survey application using a proprietary data collection software development platform. RAs who administered questionnaires (n = 8) rated the usability of the software application using the system usability scale (SUS) and open-ended questions. Research investigators (n = 2) completed in-depth interviews, that were coded and analyzed using the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a conceptual framework. Over 90% of incarcerated PLWH felt the mHealth application offered adequate comfort, privacy, and accuracy in recording their responses. RAs' SUS scores ranged from 60% to 90% (M = 76.25) and they found the mHealth survey application challenging to learn, but highly satisfying. Compared with paper-based data collection, researchers felt that electronic data collection led to improved accuracy and efficiency of data collection and the ability to monitor data collection remotely and in real time. The researchers perceived the learnability of the application as acceptable but required self-instruction.