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 This spring, we are pleased
to publish the first completely Web-based edition of The
HIV Center E-Newsletter. Since 1991, we have been sending
out a hard copy version of the newsletter in order to keep
you informed about new studies, findings, investigators,
and other developments at the HIV Center. This new entirely
on-line version will now allow us to reach more people,
more quickly, more often, and at less expense.
The inauguration of the E-Newsletter is just one of
many important and innovative new uses of information technology
at the HIV Center. As the scope of our work continues to
expand into new countries and with new partners at the
local, state, national, and international levels, we have
increasingly been employing information technologies to
promote research collaboration even at great distances.
Increasingly, the HIV Center's Research Capacity Development
Core has taken the lead on identifying how new and emerging
types of information technology can be employed to promote
rigorous, cutting-edge research and intervention, always
with the highest regard for research ethics and the careful
guidance of our Institutional Review Board.
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Our increased emphasis on information technology is
part of our attempt to maximize the public health impact
of our research in the context of a global epidemic that
continues to worsen. Still it must be noted that recent
years have seen dramatic new funding commitments to universal
HIV prevention and treatment efforts in the developing
world. The roll-out and scale-up of programs for the mass
distribution of antiretroviral medications in Africa, Southeast
Asia, and elsewhere are for the first time offering the
promise that more people will not be dying of AIDS but
rather living with HIV.
In such resource-poor settings, however, living with
HIV is no small challenge. In the period ahead, the HIV
Center will work to expand our role in extending knowledge
gained domestically to the international sphere to help
people with HIV cope with such problems as psychiatric
co-morbidities, social stigmatization and discrimination,
and adherence to difficult medication regimens. At the
same time, we plan to continue our historic role as advocates
for promising female-controlled methods of HIV and STI
prevention such as topical microbicides and the female
condom. Indeed, these are among the major areas of emphasis
in the competitive continuation application that we recently
submitted to NIMH for a Center grant to continue providing
crucial infrastructure for our HIV Center investigators.
We will be sure to keep you informed about these and
other new developments at our weekly Grand Rounds on Thursday
mornings, on our website, and via this E-Newsletter. If
you have not already registered to be a subscriber to the
E-Newsletter, please visit our homepage at (www.hivcenternyc.org)
or e-mail Melissa White at
whiteme@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu,
providing your name, title, affiliation and preferred e-mail
address.
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By Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D.
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