Sandra A. Springer, MD, professor of medicine (infectious diseases), at Yale School of Medicine, and Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, at Yale School of Public Health, along with their collaborators at Stanford University, Wake Forest University, and St. Vincent de Paul Place in Norwich, Conn., have been awarded a $10 million, five-year NIH RM1 team science grant.
GEO IMPACT, or "Geo-Targeted Implementation of a novel Mobile Pharmacy and Clinic Healthcare Delivery Model with Community Health Workers for Prevention, Care and Treatment of HIV and Substance Use," will build on the work of Springer’s InMOTION project, the first and only mobile retail pharmacy clinic hub-and-spoke healthcare delivery system developed under a Director’s Pioneer Award funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to improve access to healthcare and medications for all conditions with an emphasis on HIV prevention and treatment and opioid use disorder treatment.
This project will utilize the multidisciplinary team’s expertise in infectious disease, addiction medicine, mobile health and pharmacy services, epidemiology, statistics, geography, and implementation science to address the intersecting HIV and substance use epidemics. Modeling led by multiple principal investigators, Gonsalves and David Kline, will help identify populations in need by working with six Connecticut state agencies for the first time. The InMOTION health care delivery system will provide whole-person healthcare and pharmacy services, including linkage to social services, and will evaluate services such as HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV treatment, and substance use disorder identification and treatment, while Gonsalves’ and Kline’s data-driven modeling and MPI Mark McGovern’s implementation science strategies will support ongoing improvement through developing a learning public health system.
“Information learned through this unique collaboration could lead to adaptation by other areas of the country to reduce the incidence of HIV and drug overdoses,” says Springer.
This multi-institutional effort brings together collaborators led by Springer, the contact principal investigator, including multiple principal investigators Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, at the Yale School of Public Health; Mark McGovern, PhD, at the Stanford University School of Medicine; David Kline, PhD, at Wake Forest University; and Jillian Corbin, MBA, at the St. Vincent de Paul Place in Norwich, Conn.