The Research Alliance in Implementation Science to End HIV/AIDS (RAISE) Hub builds on expertise out of the University of Washington (UW) Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). UW professor Kenneth Sherr, PhD, co-directs the Implementation Science Core with Dr. Matthew Golden, UW professor and Director of the Public Health Seattle and King County HIV/STI/HCV Program.
Like all EHE Hubs, the RAISE Hub is built around three aims. Aim one focuses on providing consultative services and support to their assigned EHE supplement projects. This has included cross-project meetings to foster networking and peer learning.
“Aim two is under development because we are in our second year of funding,” said Sherr. “We were not engaged with any of the cross-hub research work in the first funding year, but this year we are participating in discussion of what that is going to look like.”
The RAISE Hub works in partnership with the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), providing technical assistance in implementation research to health departments in Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States (EHE) jurisdictions, which includes Krupa Mehta, Senior Manager with NASTAD’s prevention team.
“Since the beginning of this year, we have been hosting monthly webinars for the health departments on various implementation science topics, which are housed on the RAISE Hub’s YouTube channel as well as on NASTAD’s website,” said Mehta. “We’ve also conducted a needs assessment, which was done in early spring of 2023. The purpose of the needs assessment was to gauge what health departments think about implementation science and what support or technical assistance they need around it.”
The needs assessment was designed from key informant interviews with health department teams in four EHE jurisdictions. The needs assessment survey was completed by 15 health departments and filled out by an array of individuals like medical directors, health department deputy commissioners, and HIV-specific staff (including HIV division managers, prevention managers, and EHE program managers). The needs assessment has also been helpful as a guide for the RAISE Hub as they plan future webinars and develop other resources.
Along with conducting a needs assessment, the RAISE Hub has followed up with targeted consultations for several of the health departments who filled out the assessment to see where their support is needed. The Hub and their partners at NASTAD are planning and developing an in-person Evaluating EHE Implementation Workshop, which will focus on program evaluation and implementation science methods. The team hopes to have the application open by December 11, 2023, with a course start date of May 2024. Keep an eye out for the upcoming announcement.
The RAISE Hub provides recordings of webinars and workshops, and a curated list of resources and published literature that are easily accessible on their website and broken into different HIV thematic areas of interest and/or implementation science methods. These materials may be of use in providing consultation to EHE supplement project teams. To view these resources and learn more about the RAISE Hub, visit https://depts.washington.edu/uwhivishub/.