Ken Mayer, MD

“A safe and effective HIV Vaccine is our best hope for stopping the spread of HIV around the world”.  These are the words of Steve Wakefield, Director of the Legacy Project of the HIV Vaccine Trails Network and the history of epidemiology shows them to be true. Epidemics such as smallpox and polio, diseases that once ravaged entire communities have now been eliminated in most parts of the world by vaccines, many of which took decades to develop.   

The HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) is an international collaboration of scientists and educators searching for an effective and safe HIV vaccine and is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).  The Fenway Institute, in partnership with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a clinical trials unit, one of a dozen sites found in the United States.  HIV Vaccine Testing Units are found in 27 cities on 4 continents and Fenway has been involved in the network since 1999.  Under the leadership of Dr. Ken Mayer, Medical Research Director and Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute, Fenway has taken part in human test trials in all phases of HIV vaccine development - with the most recent efficacy trial a study whose goal is to see if a product is effective - being the STEP trial, which started enrolling participants in 2004.  It was hoped by many in the field that this was a vaccine that would be at least partially effective, but in 2007 the study was stopped when it was shown to not be effective at preventing infection or in reducing viral load in those who were infected.  Read more.

Judy Bradford, PhD

The Center for Population Research in LGBT Health has recently launched a National Pre-Doctoral Mentoring Program for students who are interested in the study of LGBT population health as part of their future careers (see the January 2009 edition of Making Life Healthier for more details).  This year, we have enrolled seven doctoral students as Center mentees selected from a competitive national pool of applicants.  The Program pairs students with experienced mentors who bring expertise in the issues and methods for studying LGBT population groups to advise the students in their research.

One of the first Center mentees is Zachary DuBois, a PhD student studying anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  DuBois is mentored through the Program by Drs. Scout and O’Cleirigh, both of The Fenway Institute.  DuBois’ innovative research in transgender health combines physiological and psychological measures of stress with in-depth qualitative interviews.  Aimee Van Wagenen, Program Manager for the Center, recently sat down with Zachary DuBois to talk about his research.  Read more.

Harvey Makadon, MD

LGBT Primary Care Residency Training Program

The Fenway Institute and Fenway Health’s Medical Department are working together with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to initiate what we believe will be the first LGBT primary care residency training program in the country.  While past residents from BIDMC have spent time seeing patients at Fenway, for the first time this year, two interns, Ryan Nall and Naomi Anker, will be based at Fenway for the core of their clinical work and education in ambulatory care.  In addition, four other residents in their second and third post-graduate years from BIDMC will continue to do routine practice at Fenway and will participate in the same educational programs. They will continue to have their main continuity clinics at BIDMC.

Beginning in July, these six residents will see patients at Fenway Health while being precepted by either Greg Fenton, MD or Alex Gonzalez, MD.  Greg has been the primary faculty member associated with BIDMC and Harvard Medical School in recent years and Alex is Fenway's Medical Director.  As part of this new initiative, we will be adding a structured learning session before each afternoon session.  During this time, residents will either present cases to the medical staff for discussion, focusing on topics related to the needs of patients they have seen; or, a member of the Fenway staff will lead a discussion on a range of topics, including core issues in general internal medicine, HIV prevention and treatment, care of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and general topics related to health disparities and the care of underserved populations.  Discussions will be supported by materials developed by the Division of Professional Education at The Fenway Institute.  Read more.

Jon Vincent 

Health Navigation Sweeps the Nation

The Fenway Institute is one of six sites across America funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), to pursue a feasibility study of an HIV prevention plan designed to reduce HIV infection and transmission for Black men who have sex with men (MSM).  Dubbed Project SOS (Saving OurSelves) here in Boston, this initiative offers Fenway the chance to dramatically bolster its competence working with the African-American community. It also allows us to help train our partners around the nation in an intervention developed in part here at Fenway: Health Navigation.

“I believe health navigation is the wave of the future,” says Dr. Judy Bradford.  “Here we have a competent, peer or near peer led intervention that is not only a reasonable use of tight resources, but also effectively speaks to the people it’s trying to reach.  It’s adaptable across a variety of communities and we’re hoping it’s easily replicated.”

For many years Fenway and others have been using Health Navigation to serve hard to reach populations.  An early version of Health Navigation was adopted in a research study to promote adherence to HIV medication.  This Study of National Significance was initiated by The Fenway Institute and the Multicultural AIDS Coalition and it laid the groundwork for further adaptations of the intervention.  Later, in 2006 under contract with the Boston Public Health Commission and in partnership with the MAC, The Fenway Institute adapted health navigation to serve extremely marginalized people living in urban Boston.  This program, The Navigator Project, remains a pillar of Fenway’s prevention and education services.  Read more.

Scout, PhD

National LGBT Tobacco Control Network
After months of planning, our largest annual event, the 7th Annual National LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) Tobacco Summit, was convened on June 9 in Phoenix, AZ.  The Network is pleased to report that our keynote speaker, Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, gave an incredible address.  Her speech dealt with the work that the Legacy Foundation has done on LGBT tobacco and how it is a social justice issue.  This year’s summit was an amazing success on many levels: we had 128 attendees from 34 different states (many of whom were not LGBT, but there to learn), we awarded 30 scholarships, there were dozens of workshops, and feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive.  As summed up by Blue, Executive Director of the LGBT community center of St. Louis, “Another fabulous year at the National LGBTQ Tobacco Summit!”

One of the unexpected highlights of the day was the invitation to come over and address all 50 state Department of Health representatives the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had convened in a nearby meeting.  Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, we adjourned the Summit and all 128 of us paraded over to say hi, encourage them to collect LGBT health data, and to contact the Network so we can link them with local groups when funding is available.  We are happy to say we got rousing applause and even a standing ovation from some Department of Health representatives.  Read more.

Chris Grasso, MPH

Data Management Center

Introduction
The Fenway Institute Data Team provides a one stop shop for all the data management needs of Fenway Health.  The Data Team is comprised of individuals with diverse training who support the research and clinical work at Fenway Health.  The Data Team collaborates with staff to assess their data needs and provide comprehensive data support.  This includes management of research databases, creating reports for funding agencies on clinical services and overseeing data systems used to support our work.

Health Information Technology
Much of the work of the The Fenway Institute Data Team involves support of Fenway Health’s electronic medical record (EMR).  Electronic medical records are viewed as a means of controlling costs and improving care in the US healthcare system.  This is evidenced by Congress recently allocating billions of dollars to health information technology (HIT).  Read more.