Core E -Community Engagement and Clinical Informatics Core

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Core E: Project Summary/Abstract: The HIV epidemic, locally and globally, is fueled by long-standing inequities. It is imperative that HIV research efforts align with the needs, priorities, and strengths of those communities that for too long have shouldered the burden of HIV disparities. Thus, the UCLA-CDU CFAR Community Engagement and Clinical Informatics Core (CECIC) aims to accelerate the impact of current HIV research for vulnerable populations in Los Angeles (LA) County and communities across Africa and Latin America. This Core will engage academic and community partners, LA County clinics, and global partners in a multidirectional and collaborative effort to develop and implement new ways to decrease the incidence of HIV, improve treatment outcomes of PLWH, and advance ART-free remission in communities of color disproportionately impacted by HIV. The heart of the CECIC is CDU's Community Faculty, a unique program in which community leaders who have impacted the health outcomes of their communities receive a faculty appointment at CDU. A Community Faculty member will be one of the co-directors of this core. The aims of this core are: 1): To provide training and technical assistance in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to support productive collaborations between CFAR investigators and community partners; 2) To expand CBPR to populations disproportionately impacted by HIV in Los Angeles and globally through the strategic use of Community Advisory Boards (CABs) and a research registry (RSVP); and 3) To create infrastructure to conduct Clinical Informatics-supported research with community medical providers in Los Angeles to support analysis of EHR data and to inform best practices that are responsive to patients' and providers' changing needs. The CECIC will be housed at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) and led by CDU investigators. CDU is the only designated minority-serving health-sciences university in LA County with a population of more than 10 million residents, 70 percent of whom are from minority communities. CDU serves as the only academic health sciences and medical research center for the local service area's 1.5 million residents, the largest underserved urban area in the US, made up predominantly of Latinx (68%) and Black/African-American (28%) individuals. The surrounding area has the second highest incidence of HIV/AIDS among people aged 13 years and older in the county, almost twice the national average, and the second highest HIV-infection related mortality rate. This makes CDU the ideal site to support CBPR that promises to have immediate impact on surrounding communities. By promoting advanced CBPR practices, the CECIC will expand and transform how HIV research is conducted in Los Angeles and globally. We will foster a new generation of partnerships between early stage investigators and underrepresented minority investigators, and community- based organizations to decrease HIV incidence and improve care outcomes.