The Collaborative HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities Program
Description of Summer Seminars and Activities
First Year Seminars
First Year Research Seminar. This weekly two-hour seminar is designed to develop scientists' long-term program of research and their specific pilot studies to inform their programs of research. Visiting scientists will work with CRMC seminar leaders to develop the rationales and theoretical models of their overall programs of research, as well as the aims, data-collection instruments, budgets, and human subjects protocols for their pilot studies. This seminar has evolved from a more didactic format to one that is focused on the research projects being discussed. The participating scientists provide feedback and ideas to each other and have proven to be an invaluable resource. Each CRMC mentor leads at least one seminar in order to become familiar with first year participants’ projects, as well as to provide a unique perspective and experience.
Qualitative Research Methods. Two seminars taught by Drs. Barker and Carrillo provide an overview of qualitative methods and their applications. A third concentrates on planning for the implementation of qualitative pilot studies. The focus is on how to develop an in-depth protocol to conduct semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, focus groups, or other qualitative research strategies that will yield information helpful for the subsequent NIH/CDC grant submission. Seminar leaders discuss how to develop a sampling plan that will yield a rich exploration of maximum variability in relation to key cultural concepts and contextual factors while remaining feasible in scope. The seminars also cover how to structure interview guides. Issues, for example, of how to balance close-ended, semi-structured, and open-ended questions are addressed. Consideration is given to ways to handle issues that are sensitive or stigmatized. For example, some stigmatized behaviors are captured best by soliciting a narrative rather than through direct inquiry.
Drs. Carrillo and Barker also discuss utilizing the resources of time and staffing, how to effectively analyze qualitative data, how to code qualitative data, and the qualitative data analysis software programs that are available. Finally, the seminar leaders describe how to write up qualitative analysis results, including how to report coding schemes and findings, using currently accepted standards for reporting qualitative research. They also discuss how to utilize qualitative findings in the formulation of research questions and plans for larger studies. Seminar topics and examples are informed by the work of past and current visiting scientists, which renders the material more relevant to the visiting scientists who attend these seminars.
Other one-time, two-hour seminars are also provided:
Human Subjects Protection Seminar. This seminar serves as part of the program’s required training in the conduct of responsible research. Offered by CRMC mentor Dr. Boyer, who is a long-standing member of the UCSF Committee on Human Research (CHR), Dr. Stephen Morin, Director of CAPS and former Vice-Chair of the UCSF CHR, and Dr. William Woods, a behavioral scientist principal investigator at CAPS who is a current member of the UCSF CHR, this seminar covers basic issues of protecting research participants, including appropriate ways to contact participants, consent issues and language, and addressing the specific concerns that each scientist is facing. A member of the UCSF CHR staff also attends this seminar to address questions raised by visiting scientists about the UCSF CHR and its procedures. In addition, Drs. Boyer, Morin and Woods discuss adverse event-monitoring protocols and establishing data-safety- monitoring plans.
Community Collaborations Seminar. The program has maintained a commitment to the promotion of collaboration between academic researchers and community service providers. This is also an overarching goal of the CAPS center grant, to promote research questions and designs that intimately involve impacted communities so there is no need to “translate” findings and so that we can be sure the interventions we develop are feasible and immediately applicable to the urgent epidemic in communities of color. The Community Collaborations Seminar, offered by the CAPS TIE Core, provides an overview of the theory and process of collaborative research involving academic researchers and community service providers. The seminar includes a review of community collaborative research being conducted by CAPS investigators. It also addresses participants’ questions regarding how to initiate and nurture collaborative research relationships (e.g., how to collaboratively analyze data, crafting effective data-sharing protocols, and translation of scientific research findings into prevention toolkits for community-based organizations).
Budget Development Seminar. Dr. Susan Kegeles, CAPS Co-Director, conducts a seminar that covers issues such as “buying out” teaching time in order to carry out research, working with NIH/CDC project officers in the development of proposals, how to conceptualize budgets and their relationship with the science, methods for assuring that budgets incorporate all necessary items, and how to avoid common pitfalls.
Literature Searches and Endnote Seminar. Scientists are offered the latest techniques for literature searches, creating a reference library, and downloading references and abstracts from the Internet. CAPS also provides scientists with Windows Terminal Server accounts to enable them to search the UCSF library system remotely from their home institutions during the academic year. Scientists with limited literature searching options have told us how valuable this simple service is to them: instead of waiting weeks for hard copy articles from interlibrary loan, they can rapidly obtain content they need to complete literature reviews.
Second and Third Year Seminars
Research Planning Seminar. These weekly two-hour seminars allow scientists analyzing formative data and preparing a grant or other research plan to receive input from CRMC mentors and other participants on how to interpret pilot data and integrate analysis results into a grant proposal. These sessions also address other grant-writing concerns. For instance, seminar sessions often focus on refining scientists’ theoretical models, but may cover any aspect of scientists’ programs of research. Scientists arrive with specific questions about their research and everyone participates in solving them.
For example, Dr. Mark Padilla used the seminar to solicit input from the seminar leaders and visiting scientists on how to best recruit immigrant men from the Dominican Republic who have sex with men, a hidden population in New York City. Dr. Dexter Voisin used this seminar to present a theoretical model outlining how exposure to community violence leads to reduced student-teacher connectedness and lowered academic achievement among African-American adolescents and how those factors in turn predict sexual and drug use HIV-risk behaviors. Seminar leaders and participants suggested refinements to the model and suggested NIH funding mechanisms and institutes. Different pairs of CRMC mentors co-lead these seminars each week so that visiting scientists receive exposure to different disciplinary perspectives and expertise over the course of each summer.
These group sessions are augmented by individual weekly pilot data analysis meetings with Drs. Barker and Carrillo. These meetings provide practical assistance for the successful implementation of pilot studies, conducting qualitative data analysis, and reporting and utilization of pilot study findings in publications and proposals for larger studies. These individual meetings provide a continuation of the processes initiated by the qualitative seminars in the first year of the program and ensure that each scientist has the support needed to complete the pilot study project without delays.
Quantitative Research Methods Seminar. In the program’s first few years, quantitative methods training was offered via didactic seminars covering standard statistical methods used by social and behavioral scientists (e.g., computation of coefficient alpha for scale development). However, we found that program participants already had received previous training on these topics. Quantitative HIV/AIDS-research projects often contain complex study designs and sampling frames and equally challenging data analysis issues (e.g., clustered data structures, repeated measures analyses, intervention studies with unequal loss to follow-up across study groups, etc.). What participants wanted was discussion of how to address complex statistical and methodological issues in their own projects. Thereafter, we adjusted our approach to focus on individual meetings and occasional trainings on topics of collective interest (e.g., Dr. Neilands offered introductions to structural equation modeling in 2002 and 2006). Feedback from past program participants indicated an interest in group discussions about the applicability of various quantitative methods and measures to their projects. For instance, participants have expressed considerable interest in how to develop optimal quantitative survey questions based on qualitative research findings from their pilot studies. To meet this need, we have added a weekly two-hour quantitative methods seminar that follows the same style and format of the qualitative research methods seminars. To ensure that these seminars are relevant to participants’ programs of research, seminar topics are drawn from current scientists’ projects. These quantitative methods seminars are led by Drs. Binson, Tschann, and Neilands.
Intervention Planning Seminar. Facilitated by Dr. Susan Kegeles, this seminar covers developing and implementing social/behavioral interventions, particularly as these pertain to ethnic and racial minorities, including: recruitment and retention of participants into interventions; whether to conduct individual, group or community-level approaches; the "dose" of the intervention; using optimal approaches to assign participants to study conditions; avoiding intervention contamination of control group participants; and where to implement interventions. First year scientists may attend and often find this seminar useful.
The Grants Management Workshop. Project directors from within CAPS discuss grant management issues with visiting scientists and answer their questions. Topics include how to hire a project director, project meetings, project planning, and personnel and financial management.
Additional Seminars Available to All Scientists
Additional seminars are offered to all participating visiting scientists as the need arises. Examples include funding opportunities at NIH and CDC and advanced qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g., structural equation modeling). These sessions are open to first-, second-, and third-year scientists. Participating scientists also have the opportunity to attend trainings and seminars that are part of the regular CAPS curriculum. For example, in summer 2007 the CAPS Methods Core offered two three-hour training sessions on the qualitative data analysis program Transana; several visiting professors attended this session. CAPS also offers a weekly speaker series on current issues in HIV/AIDS prevention. Several visiting professors attended these sessions and commented to CRMC mentors that these sessions were both interesting and relevant to their work. Given that many of the participating scientists in the program are the only HIV-oriented researchers in their home departments, the opportunity to visit CAPS for six weeks each summer and to attend meetings at a dedicated HIV/AIDS-prevention research institute was highly enriching.
Weekly Forum. Each week all visiting scientists and faculty meet together. The Weekly Forum starts with a lunch that provides time to socialize and network. Afterward, the Forum allows three scientists (one hour each) to present their work, including recently-submitted large grant applications. Scientists typically take 30-40 minutes to present their work. Discussion and comments consume the remainder of the session. The knowledge gained from the Weekly Forum is invaluable, since scientists share innovative research methods and theories, practical concerns about their projects, and expertise regarding research with racial and ethnic minority populations. Many minority-focused investigators are isolated from others who share their research concerns at their home institutions, so these discussions provide a rare opportunity for the exchange of ideas and information. It is also very motivating for the scientists to see the actual research applications that others present. This experience can help scientists overcome the belief that minority-focused scientists cannot obtain funding through NIH and other mechanisms. Weekly Forums are scheduled in the first three weeks of the summer program, whereas peer reviews, described below, are scheduled in the last three weeks.
Peer Review. A crucial aspect of the program is peer review of all products. CAPS has a well-developed system of peer review. Thus, each visiting scientist's summer product is formally reviewed in a one-hour group session by a CAPS investigator, a qualitative methodologist or statistician unfamiliar with the project, another visiting scientist colleague, and a member of the CAPS community advisory board (CAB). All CRMC mentors and visiting scientists attend each peer review. The peer review sessions are recorded for the scientist being reviewed. The formal component of each peer review session lasts about 30 minutes, with each peer reviewer offering seven minutes of commentary on the review product. Reviewers also supply written comments to scientists whose work is being reviewed. Following the formal portion of each review, mentors and other program participants use the remaining 30 minutes to provide additional comments and raise questions. Lively discussions amongst scientists and CRMC mentors ensue during this informal part of the review. These discussions are invaluable because the visiting scientists and mentoring faculty work together to offer useful suggestions to each scientist for refining the quality of his or her proposed research.
During the academic year visiting scientists obtain one or two peer reviews of their grants before submission, reviews of NIH summary statements, or extramural reviewer comments. These mid-year peer reviews have been enhancements to the program and have proven extremely helpful. If scientists visit CAPS (reviews may be planned around a meeting or conference in San Francisco), they meet with CAPS methods experts, their CRMC mentor, and others who have relevant expertise. Otherwise, these mid-year peer reviews are conducted by conference call with written comments from reviewers shared by e-mail.
Individualized long-term research collaboration. Each visiting scientist is assigned to one of the UCSF program faculty, who serves as the scientist’s primary CRMC mentor and who collaborates with the scientist on the scientist’s program of research. This collaboration includes regular meetings during the summer, review of all written work, and weekly contact throughout the year. CRMC mentors provide guidance on all aspects of the pilot study project and proposal development. CRMC mentors may refer the participant to other CAPS and outside resources as needed. These include: administrative staff for budget-related issues; individual scientists for measures, manuscripts, or theoretical discussions of their work; the CAPS Policy and Ethics Core for ethical issues and human subjects concerns; CAPS scientists or staff for recruitment or measurement issues; the CAPS Methods Core for specialized qualitative, quantitative, and data management expertise; and the CAPS TIE Core for dissemination and community collaboration issues.
A critical aspect of the collaboration is the racial and ethnic minority research expertise of CRMC mentors. Mentors have been selected because of their particular expertise in racial and ethnic minority populations and mentoring scientists conducting HIV/AIDS-prevention research in racial and ethnic minority communities. These faculty each have a long track record of mentoring, publications, and grants focusing on racial and ethnic minority populations.
Participants often require CAPS expertise beyond the three-year time frame of the program. Those who have obtained funding may have questions about grant management, subject recruitment or follow up, statistical or methodological issues, or their subsequent grants. Those who do not receive funding within the designated time are supported informally after they complete the program. For example, Drs. Boyer and Barker are assisting Dr. Nelson Varas Díaz in developing his R01-funded intervention to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma among medical students in Puerto Rico. This long-term commitment means that each scientist can eventually achieve his or her goals. This ongoing support of scientists is a very important aspect of the CRMC program.
Access to CAPS expertise. Participants receive support
from multiple members of CAPS. In addition to meeting weekly with their
primary mentor and presenting their research to program participants
and other CRMC mentors, they also meet with investigators at CAPS to
discuss their work. All CAPS scientists are available to help them think
through theoretical or practical issues. There are approximately 30
faculty investigators at CAPS, ten non-faculty Ph.D. research specialists,
and ten project coordinators with masters of public health degrees whose
expertise and programs research span diverse areas of behavioral HIV/AIDS-prevention
research. Participating scientists may work with any of these CAPS scientists
when doing so would benefit their research projects. Sometimes they
also work with statisticians and qualitative researchers who have a
range of methodological knowledge and experience to offer. They may
also meet with CAPS staff to discuss technology transfer, ethical issues,
or participant tracking methods. Because of the wide range of research
projects and expertise related to HIV/AIDS-prevention research at CAPS,
program participants are usually able to find answers to difficult questions
or methodological problems.