CHPIR continues to partner with the Craven County Health Department (CCHD) in New Bern, NC to offer the Teen Outreach Project (TOP).  In 2012, Genevieve Ankeny Hunter (GV), a CHPIR project coordinator, Tova Hairston, a native of Craven County, successfully led a program that reached over one hundred youth, ages 11-17, in Craven County. The TOP curriculum not only provided these youth with an essential education on teen pregnancy and HIV/STD transmission, it also promoted essential abilities to reduce future risk behavior by focusing on three important tenants in youth development: a sense of purpose, life skills and healthy behaviors.

CHPIR’s first and only project serving adolescents in North Carolina, the Teen Outreach Program of Craven County, had a tremendous year of growth.  Since February of 2012, TOP® of Craven County has served over 200 youth, ages 11-17. Sites grew almost to capacity in year 2 of the grant and in year 3 (2013-2014), they are at full capacity at three sites.  TOP® has also been approved to host a pilot TOP® at a new site, adjacent to a housing project in New Bern, NC.  This is a high-risk area of the city, where previous after-school programs were maintained for many years, but recently were not funded. This is a wonderful opportunity to expand the program in an underserved area.

TOP® is funded by the Women’s Health Branch, which sponsors the program under the name, PREPare for Success or PREP.  PREP, is known nationally as the personal responsibility education program and is designed to educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.  It also promotes adulthood preparation subjects such as, healthy relationships and parent-child communication.

TOP®, however, offers much more than the basics of teen pregnancy prevention.   TOP® is youth-oriented and is focused on three important tenets of youth development:  sense of purpose, life skills and healthy behaviors.  For youth, this translates to a regular meeting place where they feel they have a voice.  It is a safe place where youth have said they can ask questions “openly and honestly.” Furthermore, youth trust that they will get an honest and thoughtful answer back.

Learning through service or Community Service Learning is also an integral part of TOP®.  This past year participants chose varied service projects including: a reading and art intervention with preschoolers, a letter writing and care package campaign for deployed military and a pennies for pets project for a local animal shelter.  TOP® youth and staff thoroughly enjoyed their service work.

TOP® hosted many enriching trips in 2012-2013, including a college tour over spring break to six North Carolina colleges and universities, including two Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  The end of year trip to Ft. Macon State Park and Atlantic Beach was a huge highlight for many participants who have never been to the regional landmark and do not often get a day at the beach.

TOP® staff continues its collaborative efforts and strong partnerships with many organizations and community members in Craven County.   Community partners include:  Craven County Health Department, City of New Bern/Parks and Recreation, Craven County Schools, Craven County Department of Social Services and St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church.  All of these partners offer in-kind contributions, including office space and TOP® after-school meeting space.

In the summer of 2013, Genevieve and Tova attended a week long intensive training. The Training Institute for Sexual Health Educators or TISHE, is a nationally known training for sexuality educators, founded by Rutgers University and sponsored the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina.  It featured plenaries on topics including:  learner diversity, creating a safe learning environment, exploring values, and broadening understanding of sexuality and sexuality education. It also featured daily small-group work with other professionals to enhance facilitation and training skills.  It was the most comprehensive and effective training our TOP® staff has attended thus far.

Genevieve continued her work with the Southern Reach-AIDS United project working in collaboration with the Duke Legal AIDS Assistance Project. She continues to offer curriculum development and training to legal and medical staff serving people living with HIV/AIDS throughout North Carolina.  The aim of this project is to reduce discrimination and breaches of confidentiality in legal and emergency room settings.  In the spring of 2013, Genevieve trained a physician and his entire practice on HIV and confidentiality, after a Department of Justice lawsuit found the practice liable for discriminatory practices. In addition, this past summer, Genevieve and Carolyn McAllaster, Duke Professor of Law, trained two groups of Duke University Medical Center internal medicine and emergency department medicine residents in working to maintain confidentiality of patients living with HIV/AIDS.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at UNC Healthcare and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom. 

UNC, Duke Team up with Carrboro-based Caktus Group on HIV Gaming App

CHAPEL HILL — The web application development company Caktus Group has teamed up with researchers at the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases and the Duke Global Health Institute to develop a mobile phone app that may help patients better adhere to their medication regimens.

The new venture is funded by a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health. The study team will develop a novel mobile phone game app with the goal of improving medication adherence among HIV-infected young black men who have sex with men. In the United States, this is the demographic with the highest number of new HIV infections.

The Daily Dose app will utilize game mechanics and social networking features to improve adherence to HIV medication. In addition to scheduled medication reminders and adherence tracking, Daily Dose will use gaming features to create a compelling and engaging experience that will motivate and support behavior change. The app will also promote social interaction, which will allow users to share their successes and encourage others to maintain their adherence goals. Gamers will be awarded points for sharing their own successes and providing support and encouragement to their fellow gamers. The study team hopes this anonymous social network of peer support will drive patients to maintain their medication schedules.

While Caktus Group leads the development of the game, the usability studies will be conducted by Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, associate professor of medicine at UNC and Sara LeGrand, PhD, assistant research professor at the Duke Global Health Institute. The researchers will organize focus groups and conduct a series of in-person interviews with potential users to get feedback on the app’s design throughout the development process.

“Because the game will be designed, developed and refined based on consistent user feedback, we are confident that Daily Dose will be both engaging and effective,” said Tobias McNulty, principlal investigator and managing member at Caktus Group.

Ultimately, Daily Dose aims to improve drug adherence among a population disproportionately affected by HIV by developing an effective antiretroviral therapy adherence app tailored specifically for this group. Recent research has shown that treating HIV makes people less contagious and drastically reduces the spread of the virus to sexual partners. Through careful design and development, this new project hopes to improve patient outcomes and reduce the spread of HIV among a vulnerable population.

About Caktus Group

Caktus Consulting Group, LLC is a growing team of creative developers and designers based in Carrboro, North Carolina. The company was founded in August 2007 to serve the web needs of startups, researchers, health care organizations, and established businesses in the North Carolina Triangle region and beyond. Caktus Group’s specialty is creating web and mobile applications using Django, an open source web framework that is business friendly and easily customized. By listening carefully, Caktus Group develops products that clients consistently say are intuitive and fill needs they had not yet discovered.

About the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases

Founded in 2007, the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases at UNC harnesses the resources of the University and its partners to solve local and global health problems, reduce the burden of disease, and inspire and train the next generation of leaders in global health.

About the Duke Global Health Institute

The Duke Global Health Institute, established in 2006, brings knowledge from every corner of Duke University to bear on the most important global health issues of our time. DGHI was established as a University-wide institute to coordinate, support, and implement Duke’s interdisciplinary research, education, and service activities related to global health. DGHI is committed to developing and employing new models of education and research that engage international partners and find innovative solutions to global health challenges.

Dr. Chris Conover is a Research Scholar at the the Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research at Duke University, an adjunct scholar at AEI, and a Mercatus-affiliated senior scholar. His research interests are in the area of health regulation and state health policy, with a focus on issues related to health care for the medically indigent (including the uninsured), and estimating the magnitude of the social burden of illness. He is the recent author of The American Health Economy Illustrated and is a Forbes contributor at The Health Policy Skeptic.

Dr. Conover’s research has received a lot of attention in 2013. Check out the links below to learn more about his research. You can follow Dr. Conover on twitter @ConoverChris.

• TV interview with Neil Cavuto on Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fox News, November 4, 2013 [available here] 
  
• TV interview with Larry Kudlow on The Kudlow Report, CNBC, November 4, 2013 [available here] 
  
• Radio interview with Jason Rantz on Jason Rantz Show, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM (Seattle), September 28, 2013 [available here] 
  
• Radio interview with Michael Robinson on The Michael S. Robinson Show, 970 AM (New York City), September 28, 2013 [available here] 
  
• Radio interview with Mike Rosen on The Mike Rosen Show, 850 KOA AM (Denver), August 13, 2013 [available here] 
  
• Podcast interview with Paul Howard on MedicalProgressToday.com, New York, NY, March 29, 2013 [php]