Interdisciplinary Research Methods Core (IRMC)

The HIV Center is dedicated to advancing the science of HIV sexual-risk behavior interventions – both primary and secondary – for high risk populations as well as the science of HIV-health promotion (in terms of HIV testing, counseling, and treatment) both in the US and internationally. Our research mission therefore demands the integration of intensive ethnographic/qualitative methods with psychometrically-developed quantitative measures such as structured, in-depth sexual interviews and psychometric scales and inventories. Such research must be accompanied by careful scrutiny of contextual and structural factors that influence the spread of the epidemic and/or access to diagnostic procedures, medical treatment, and psychosocial management. These integrated methods provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the determinants and outcomes and, thus, the empirical basis for creating feasible, tailored interventions. Often, projects utilize ethnographic approaches to characterize the society and its subpopulations under study and use qualitative techniques during the formative phase of protocol development. These methods can lead to new and refined quantitative assessment instruments, to multilevel interventions, and to the evaluation of their delivery and efficacy.

The Interdisciplinary Research Methods Core (IRMC) has a central role in the HIV Center's research process.  It serves as an interdisciplinary advisory and oversight resource to project investigators by providing group and individual consultations.  Topics covered by the IRMC include: characterization of the defining features of important HIV high-risk, infected and affected subgroups, especially the practices, relationships, cultural, social, and material contexts that shape their sexual lives; conceptualization of explanatory models for HIV-related sexual behavior and sexual-risk interventions that draw on the social and behavioral sciences; operationalization of subgroup-specific outcomes, mediating and moderating influences (including stigma, mental illness, HIV-testing, HIV treatment and care), and intervention process factors; and development and implementation of interventions, on multiple levels where appropriate and feasible.

The IRMC also serves as a resource for Center-wide training and education in new developments in HIV-related sex research and prevention science and in the use of ethnographic and qualitative methods, sexual behavior interviews, and interventions.  An additional part of its mission is to advance science development by serving as a venue for synthesizing emerging theoretical and methodological challenges in HIV sexual behavior and sexual-risk intervention science, which will lead to an improved understanding of risk behavior and its prevention, with practical implications for public policy and for the planning of research.
 

Core Members

Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Dr. rer. nat.: Core Director
Susan Tross, Ph.D.: Core Co-Director
Jennifer Hirsch, Ph.D.: Core Co-Director
Melissa White, M.S.W.: Core Coordinator

Pamela Collins, M.D.
Curtis Dolezal, Ph.D.
Shari Dworkin, Ph.D.
Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D.
Theresa M. Exner, Ph.D.
Claude Ann Mellins, Ph.D.
Ilan Meyer, Ph.D.
Judith Rabkin, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Theo Sandfort, Ph.D.
Milton Wainberg, M.D.