Past Events

For recordings of past events and webinars, please refer to CHARM's  channel.
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  • Solving the Challenges to Behavioral Research during the COVID-19 Pandemic

    Presenters: Dr. Maria Alcaide, Dr. Lunthita Duthely, Dr. Dainelys Garcia, Dr. Audrey Harkness, Dr. Daniel Jimenez, Dr. Steven Safren, Ms. Maria Tapia, Mr. Andres Vazquez, Dr. Denise Vidot, and Dr. Deborah Jones Weiss

    July 23, 2020, 3:00 – 5:00 PM

    Topics Covered:

    • Informed consent procedures and other IRB-related issues
    • Administering assessments (e.g., web-based, telephone, etc.)
    • Interventions (e.g., MHealth, telephone, etc.)
    • Specimen collection and safety
    • Compensation (e.g., gift cards, cash transfers, etc.)

  • Expanding community virus screening programs and statewide virus elimination efforts

    Presenter: Dr. Emmanuel Thomas

    Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology

    June 06, 2020, 2:30 – 3:30 PM

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Thomas's research program is to develop integrated, multidisciplinary approaches for the study of virus driven diseases and to bridge clinical medicine and basic science with translation of fundamental knowledge to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of viral diseases and related cancers.

    About the Presentation:

    Having been raised in Miami-Dade county, Dr. Thomas has a strong commitment to improving the health of our local community. Through our community virus screening programs and statewide virus elimination efforts, we are identifying infected individuals and linking them to care. In addition, we are also facilitating the ability of uninsured patients to receive costly medications through patient assistance programs.

  • Five Point Initiative: A Model for Meeting Miami's Black Communities Where They Are in Efforts to End the HIV Epidemic

    Presenter: Dr. Sannisha Dale

    Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

    May 13, 2020, 2:00 – 3:00 PM

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Dole is the Founder and Director of the SHINE (Strengthening Health through INnovotion and Engagement) Research Program. Dr. Dale's primary research interests include investigating psychosocial (e.g.microoggressions, discrimination) and structural factors (e.g. poverty) that relate to HIV health disparities, developing interventions, and engaging community members and stakeholders in research.

    About the Presentation:

    The Five Point Initiative is (1) partnering with five venues in five Miami-Dade zip codes with the highest number of Black individuals living with HIV (2) collaborating with community health organizations funded by the CDC, HRSA, and/or SAMHSA and (3) hosting twenty five events in which community members complete a brief electronic survey in exchange for a service/voucher at a venue and are offered HIV /STI voluntary counseling and testing, and condoms.

  • Developing a tailored strategy to increase the scale up and dissemination of HIV prevention and behavioral health services to Latino MSM

    Presenter: Dr. Audrey Harkness

    Research Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences

    Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 1:30-2:30pm

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Harkness is a Research Assistant Professor in the University of Miami Department of Public Health Sciences. Her work focuses on HIV-prevention and treatment integrated with behavioral health, primarily among sexual and gender minority populations and Latino MSM.

    About the Presentation:

    This presentation will provide an overview of the presenter’s mixed methods work which identified barriers and facilitators to Latino MSM utilizing evidence-based HIV-prevention and behavioral health services, and plans to leverage these data to develop a tailored strategy to increase the scale up and dissemination of these services to Latino MSM in the Miami area. The presenter will be seeking feedback on next steps for this program of research. 

  • FINISHING HIV: A Network-Based HIV Protection, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program for Latinos

    Presenter: Mariano Kanamori, PhD

    Assistant Professor Department of Public Health Sciences

    Wednesday, February 19th, 1:30–2:30PM

    Don Soffer CRC 7th Floor, Suite 710 - CTSI Research Training Center

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Kanamori is an epidemiologist with 26 years of experience designing, developing, implementing and evaluating HIV interventions for Latino communities, including Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) in Miami- Dade County (MDC). He is changing the paradigm for HIV prevention among Latinos through a spatially explicit social network-based model that incorporates geographic information systems and social network approaches.

    About the Presentation:

    Dr. Kanamori will present his NIH-funded project: FINISHING HIV, which uses a pharmacy network and a parks network to increase awareness and utilization of HIV protection, diagnosis, and treatment services among Latino MSM subgroups in MDC. Dr. Kanamori’s studies show that the HIV epidemic in MDC is driven by Latino MSM who identify as gay, those who identify as bisexual and those who identify as straight.

  • Implementing a Telemedicine Test and Treat approach at the Miami IDEA Syringe Services Program

    Presenter: Hansel E. Tookes, III, MD, MPH

    Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine

    Wednesday, February 12th, 2:00 – 3:00 PM

    Don Soffer Clinical Research Center 7th Floor, Suite 710 CTSI Research Training Center

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Tookes is a public health physician with extensive experience in working with people living with HIV and people at high risk for acquiring HIV, including people who inject drugs (PWID).

    About the Presentation:

    PWID experience extensive barriers to engagement in HIV care. It is estimated that less than half of PWID living with HIV in the U.S. are virally suppressed. Test and Treat approaches are associated with viral suppression; however, more is needed when engaging PWID into HIV care. Telemedicine has been successful for direct patient consultation for HIV care. The progress on local implementation and plans for statewide expansion of the Telemedicine Test and Treat approach will be discussed.

  • Introduction to Qualitative Research: What is it? When should you use qualitative research?

    Presenters: Sara Mijares St-George, PhD Assistant Professor Dept of Public Health Sciences; Joseph De Santis, PhD Associate Professor School of Nursing & Health Studies

    Friday, December 6th, 2019 1:00 – 3:00 PM

    Don Soffer Clinical Research Center 1120 NW 14th St, Miami FL 33136 7th Floor, Suite 710

    About the presentation:

    Data Collection - Developing a question guide; Participant sampling and sample size considerations; Types of data collection; Interview skills; Equipment, recording procedures; Transcription

  • Developing Multi-Level Interventions to Address Suicidality in People Living with HIV who Use Substances

    Presenter: Adam Carrico, PhD

    Associate Professor Depts. of Public Health Sciences and Psychology

    Wednesday, November 20th, 1:30–2:30PM

    Don Soffer Clinical Research Center, 15th Floor, Suite 1552

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Carrico is a clinical-health psychologist with expertise in developing and testing integrative interventions to optimize HIV/AIDS prevention efforts with individuals who engage in problematic patterns of alcohol or other substance use.

    About the Presentation:

    Suicidality is a prevalent comorbidity in people living with HIV (PLWH) who use substances. However, little is known about the predictors and consequences of suicidality in this population. This presentation will leverage findings from a study conducted by the NIDA Clinical Trials Network that enrolled PLWH who use substances from 11 hospitals in the U.S. Findings highlight the multi-level determinants of suicidality in PLWH and demonstrate that higher suicidality is independently associated with lower odds of viral suppression.

     

  • Machine Learning: Who knows, who cares, why bother...

    Presenter: Raymond Balise, PhD

    Research Assistant Professor Department of Public Health Sciences

    Wednesday, November 20th, 12:00 – 1:00 PM

    Don Soffer Clinical Research Center, 15th Floor, Suite 1552

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Balise is an award winning lecturer and the author of “Presenting Medical Statistics from Proposal to Publication” and more than a hundred peer reviewed publications and refereed presentations in topics including phonetics to obstetrics, dyspepsia to dyslexia and health disparity to brachytherapy. He is currently working on projects tackling HIV, substance abuse or health disparities.

    About the Presentation:

    This presentation is geared towards people who do not love math but who need to make the best possible predictions about patient outcomes and the effects of health policy changes. Attendees will be introduced to Machine Learning (ML) methods and shown why they make better predictions for patient outcomes when compared to other traditional methods. Examples include using ML to predict breast cancer based on images and predicting survival after catastrophic burns. The utility of traditional hypothesis testing methods and the importance of model validation will be discussed. These methods include k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees, Random Forests and Neural Networks.

  • New directions for the Community-Based HIV Awareness for Minority Populations (CHAMP) Program

    Presenter: Sonjia Kenya, Ed.D., M.S., M.A.

    Wednesday, October 23rd, 1:30–2:30PM

    Soffer CRC 7th Floor, Suite 710 - CTSI Research Training Center

    About the Presenter:

    Dr. Kenya is an Associate Professor of General Medicine & Public Health at the University of Miami, and the Director of Community Health at the Weiss Institute for Health Equity at the Sylvester Cancer Center. She conducts various HIV research and service programs targeting high risk Black populations in Miami‐Dade County. Dr. Kenya currently leads one of the largest street‐based rapid HIV testing programs in the County.