Strategic Training Partnership to End AIDS in Georgia

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The Georgian nongovernmental organization Partnership for Research and Action for Health proposed to partner with the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), in collaboration with the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and the State University of New York Albany School of Public Health (UAlbany SPH) along with other New York State institutions to build capacity in conducting implementation science research that will address gaps in HIV prevention and care in Georgia. This effort builds on the long and productive association between Georgian universities and public health institutions, SUNY-DMC and UAlbany SPH, within the framework of the Fogarty funded New York State International Training and Research Program (NYS-ITRP) training grant that has been active in Georgia since 1996. The goal is to develop adequate capacity to better understand key barriers to HIV testing/diagnosis and linkage to care among key populations and to prepare an evidence base to improve the national response to HIV. Proposed objectives includes:1) Provide doctoral training in public health and implementation science to 10 Georgians, who will be trained in the US and in Georgia; 2). Provide short-term training to 30 trainees in sciences related to implementation research annually; 3) build institutional capacity at TSU through doctoral course improvement and faculty training. With progress in these interventions, it may be possible to dramatically reduce HIV incidence in a country of the former Soviet Union, one of the few regions in the world with rising HIV rates. The proposed structure, topics, and focus were selected based on a rigorous needs assessment conducted within the framework of a Fogarty supported planning grant. These topics align fully with UNAIDS’s key recommendations to policy makers on the investments needed to end the global AIDS epidemic and will be built on an already funded CDC initiative to eliminate hepatitis C in Georgia. The program’s proposed scientific topics also align fully with the priorities laid out in New York State’s “Plan to End the AIDS Epidemic.” This alignment of priorities, as well as the underlying similarities in the HIV epidemics in the Republic of Georgia and New York State, creates a unique opportunity to incorporate a meaningful experiential learning component as part of the proposed training program. This addresses a high priority topic from the NIH strategy on reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS by implementing strategies to improve HIV testing and entry into prevention services.