Kristen Sullivan (CHPIR) Featured in the July 2015 DGHI Newsletter
NC-LINK Implements and Evaluates Innovative HIV Care Approaches in North Carolina
Kristen Sullivan, a research scholar at CHPIR, and her team are working with providers and policymakers to evaluate innovative approaches to engage people living with HIV (PLWH) in consistent medical care across North Carolina. NC-LINK—is a collaborative effort of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Duke University. Kristen Sullivan leads the evaluation and provision of technical assistance to the project sites.
Global is Local
Sullivan’s interest in ensuring sustained medical care to PLWH reaches far beyond North Carolina. Currently, she’s working with global health professor Dorothy Dow to analyze data from HIV-positive adolescents in Moshi, Tanzania.
Sullivan notes that engagement in continuous HIV care is a major global challenge, and although many issues affecting HIV care are culturally and contextually unique, many commonalities also exist across different countries. For example, she has seen many of the same barriers to care in Moshi that exist here in North Carolina, such as stigma, lack of transportation, mental health problems and poverty.
“There is much to be learned from each other,” Sullivan said, “and I feel very lucky my work allows me the opportunity to explore solutions to these challenges on both local and global levels.”
For more on her featured article, visit the DGHI newsletter article here.
