HealthMpowerment Research Portfolio
The HMP platform powers a range of research studies related to digital health and wellness worldwide.
Camellia Cohort
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an important biomedical HIV prevention tool and may particularly benefit Black women, who are at increased risk for HIV and STIs. The purpose of this study is to use a population-based approach to create a cohort of women at risk for acquisition to better understand the factors associated with the risk of STI and HIV diagnosis and predictors of PrEP use.
Full Title
CAMELLIA Cohort: A Longitudinal Study to Understand Sexual Health and Prevention Among Women in Alabama
ClinicalTrials.gov #
05463692
Principal Investigators
Latesha Elopre, MD, MSPH
Lynne Matthews, MD, MPH
Institutions
Alabama Department of Public Health
Florida State University
Target RWE
One Cow Standing
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
EPICC+
EPICC+ seeks to adapt existing evidence-based provider and patient education and support tools and materials (EBT) for use in young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and to train providers in the use of the EBT to facilitate PrEP shared decision making.
Full Title
Expanding PrEP in Community of Color (EPICC+)
Principal Investigator
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Co- Investigators
Henna Budhwani, PhD, MPH
Sylvie Naar, PhD
Kate Muessig, PhD
Allysha Maragh-Bass, PhD
Andrés Martinez, PhD
Elizabeth Tolley, PhD
MacKenzie Cottrell, PharmD, MS
Audrey Pettifor, PhD
Institutions
Florida State University
FHI 360
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
foXXy doxy
foXXy doxy is a study addressing the increasing rates of STIs such as gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia. Adolescent and young women represent a unique and important population that is often overlooked in HIV/STI prevention interventions.
Emerging data indicates that doxycycline prophylaxis (DoxyPEP), a medication prescribed to other populations to prevent STIs, may be a promising strategy for prevention. foXXy doxy strives to understand how DoxyPEP can best protect adolescent and young women.
Full Title
Doxycycline Prophylaxis for Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Adolescent and Young Women in the United States
Principal Investigators
Jenell Stewart, DO, MPH
Cherie Blair, MD
Institutions
University of Minnesota/Hennepin Healthcare
University of Washington
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research and Education
Florida State University
HIV Prevention Trials Network
One Cow Standing
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
HealthMpowerment 1.0
Learn about the research that fueled the early days of HealthMpowerment.
HealthSpark
HealthSpark is study designed to increase sexual health knowledge among adolescents and young adults ages 14 to 24 years old in the Southern U.S. It also seeks to help youth and adults engage in sexual health discussions with each other. The app provides informational resources that can help youth and adults to initiate and engage in conversations with each other.
Full Title
Integration of Trusted Adult Supports into the HealthMpowerment App to Improve Black Adolescent and Young Adult PrEP Use
ClinicalTrials.gov #
NCT06876324
Principal Investigators
Samantha Hill, MD, MPH
Institutions
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Emory University
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)
HMP Stigma
HMP is an app-delivered intervention designed with and for young, Black and Latinx gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men and transgender women. The digital health intervention aims to improve HIV prevention and care by providing a platform where participants can find social support, build community, and engage with issues that matter to them.
Full Title
Increasing engagement and improving HIV care outcomes via stigma reduction in an online social networking intervention among racially diverse young men who have sex with men and transgender women
ClinicalTrials.gov #
NCT03678181
Principal Investigators
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH (m-PI)
Kate Muessig, PhD
José Bauermeister, MPH, PhD
Institutions
Florida State University
University of Pennsylvania
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
LITE-2
LITE-2 is a national longitudinal cohort study specific to sexual AND gender minority adolescents that examines and models the trajectories of sexual behavior, gender identity development, HIV transmission risk and HIV prevention engagement of SGM (inclusive of gender diverse and non-binary individuals) ages 13-34 over time.
Full Title
Keeping it LITE: Exploring HIV Risk in Vulnerable Youth with Limited Interaction and Digital Health Intervention (LITE-2)
Principal Investigators
Sybil Hosek, PhD
Audrey L. French, MD
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
University of Illinois Chicago
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Lu Dedoo
Lu Dedoo is a digital health app designed to increase antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication amongst youth in Nigeria living with HIV. Historically, adolescents have struggled with remaining medication adherent and complying with a strict medicinal schedule. Lu Dedoo strives to address such barriers through adaptation of the HMP app. The app promotes the importance of taking ART on a daily basis, along with other health topics, and provides users with medication reminders to stay on schedule.
Full Title
Lu Dedoo
Institutions
University of Cape Town
APIN Public Health Initiatives, Nigeria
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funder
The Desmond Tutu Health Foundation
LYPS
Linking Youth to PrEP Services (LYPS), is a multi-level intervention that aims to optimize PrEP adherence and persistence among adolescents and young adults. To do this, LYPS combines the structural-level delivery of PrEP and PrEP services by a community health professional (CHP) at a place the youth choose, with an individual-level mobile app to support PrEP adherence and persistence between CHP visits.
Full Title
Linking Youth to PrEP Services (LYPS)
Principal Investigators
Kate Muessig, PhD
Keith Horvath, PhD
Audrey Pettifor, PhD
Institutions
Florida State University
San Diego State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
One Cow Standing
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
MASI
The purpose of this study is to customize and pilot MASI (MAsakhane Siphucule Impilo Yethu, Xhosa for “Let’s empower each other and improve our health”), a digital health app-based intervention to promote adherence to HIV treatment among adolescents living with perinatally-acquired HIV in Cape Town, South Africa.
Full Title
Piloting a Smartphone App to Improve Treatment Adherence Among South African Adolescents Living With HIV
ClinicalTrials.gov #
NCT04661878
Principal Investigator
Marta Mulawa, PhD, MHS
Co- Investigators
Jackie Hoare
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
Duke University
Florida State University
University of Cape Town
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
MindBodyU
MindBodyU is a digital health app that is tailored to meet the needs of young people living with HIV in South Carolina (ages 16 – 25 years). The goal of MindBodyU is to help youth living with HIV to become empowered, active participants in their HIV care journey. The mobile app helps young people gain important knowledge and skills for managing their HIV, with the ultimate goal of helping every young person living with HIV in South Carolina to achieve and maintain viral suppression.
The MindBodyU app is also designed to help young people cope with the unique challenges of living with HIV, like experiencing stress, anxiety, and HIV-related stigma. Interactive experiences within the app help young people learn how to take good care of their mental health, physical health, and sexual health. The app also helps youth learn to navigate social and romantic encounters that may be complicated by a positive HIV status.
Importantly, MindBodyU allows youth living with HIV to directly connect to key mental health services, including virtual therapy visits with affirmative mental health providers. This is critical in a state like South Carolina where there are major healthcare provider shortages and many barriers to affirmative, high-quality mental healthcare for youth.
Full Title
Improving the HIV Care Continuum for Youth in the Deep South through Mobile Health Technology (MindBodyU)
Principal Investigators
Sayward Harrison, Phd, MA, CAS
Institutions
University of South Carolina
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
MY-Hero
With a rapidly expanding HIV epidemic in Malaysia, HIV incidence is increasing, especially among MSM. MY-Hero is a developed app with elements of gamification from the HMP platform. Additional health behaviors such as smoking rates, alcohol/drug use, depression, and levels of physical activity will be trackable within the app. MY-Hero’s goal is to deliver an integrated HIV prevention intervention to improve PrEP uptake, retention and other health promoting activities for Malaysian YMSM.
Full Title
Gamification to Enhance Engagement in HIV Prevention and Co-Morbid Conditions in Young Men Who Have Sex with Men
Principal Investigators
Jeffrey Wickersham, PhD
Institutions
Yale University
University of Malaya
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Prepare Romania
To address the unmet HIV prevention needs of Romanian gay and bisexual men, Prepare Romania proposes to introduce a culturally-responsive PrEP program in Romania. Prepare Romania will integrate and adapt two tools that we developed and tested in the US 1) SPARK, an in-person motivational intervention for uptake of and adherence to PrEP using an empowering sexual health approach; and 2) P3 (Prepared, Protected, emPowered), a PrEP adherence support app that utilizes engaging social networking and game-based elements, with an in-app portal for individualized live adherence counseling.
Full Title
Preparing for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Implementation in Central-Eastern European Countries with Low Access to Biomedical Prevention
Principal Investigators
Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, MPhil
Co- Investigator
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
Columbia University
Yale School of Public Health
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funder
Fogarty International Center
PrEPresent
PrEPresent is a study to develop and pilot test a PrEP activation, navigation and support digital health intervention for Black and Latino young men who have sex with men (BYMSM, L-YMSM) in the Los Angeles metro area.
Full Title
PrEPresent: An Online PrEP Navigation and Activation Intervention for YMSM/Trans/Non-binary Youth in the Los Angeles Metro Area
ClinicalTrials.gov #
NCT05281393
Principal Investigators
Michele Kipke, PhD
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Florida State University
University of Southern California
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Remain
REMAIN is a digital health smartphone app designed to assist underserved populations in staying in HIV care and maintaining their antiretroviral (ART) medication adherence.
Full Title
Exploring, Predicting, and Intervening on Long-Term Viral Suppression Electronically (EPI-LoVE)
Principal Investigators
Pamina M. Gorbach, DrPH, MHS
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Sean Young, PhD
Co-Investigator
Kate Muessig, PhD
Institutions
University of California, Los Angeles
Florida State University
University of California, Irvine
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
RISE
RISE is a research study app designed to promote healthy living among young people in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. RISE is an adaptation of the HMP app, which covers a range of health and lifestyle topics to support users’ diverse backgrounds and varying needs over time.
Full Title
The Resilient HIV Implementation Science with SGM Youths Using Evidence (RISE) Study
Principal Investigators
Man E. Charurat, PhD, MHS
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
STARR-NC
STARR-NC is a study to increase the uptake of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), medication that prevents HIV, within populations of young sexual minority men who reside in rural counties in North Carolina.
Full Title
Supporting Tailored and Responsive PrEP in Rural North Carolina (STARR-NC)
Principal Investigator
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Co- Investigators
Henna Budhwani, PhD, MPH
Sylvie Naar, PhD
Kate Muessig, PhD
Allysha Maragh-Bass, PhD
Andrés Martinez, PhD
Elizabeth Tolley, PhD
MacKenzie Cottrell, PharmD, MS
Audrey Pettifor, PhD
Institutions
Florida State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Stars
STARS is an app-delivered digital health intervention designed with and for young sexual and gender minorities (YSGM) at risk for suicide in Philadelphia. The app aims to reduce YSGM’s suicidal ideation and reinforced the intention to adhere to their safety plan.
Full Title
Supporting transitions to Adulthood and reducing suicide (STARS)
Principal Investigators
José Bauermeister, PhD, MPH
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Institutions
University of Pennsylvania
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funder
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
TRANSforming the Carolinas
The purpose of this study is to develop and pilot a community health worker (CHW) training module designed to address the barriers to HIV prevention and care for transgender people of color (TPOC) living in North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina (SC).
Principal Investigators
Tonia Poteat, PhD, MPH, PA-C
Co-Investigators
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
Meagan Zarwell
Sayward Harrison
Institutions
Duke University
University of South Carolina
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Florida State University
The Wright Wellness Center
Mecklenburg County
Medical University of South Carolina
Roper St. Francis
DHEC
One Cow Standing
Funders
UNC CFAR Supplement from U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
UsNoW
We propose to leverage young Black sexual minority men’s (YBSMM) supportive connections with Black women to develop USNow (PrEP Utilization through increasing Social Capital among YBSMM Networks with Women), a novel digital health intervention that will engage Black women as facilitators in existing networks of YBSMM, as a way of enhancing social capital, decreasing intersectional stigma, and promoting PrEP uptake within the network. The central feature of the USNow intervention will be real-time, virtual discussions led by a trained Black woman facilitator, delivered to an existing network of YBSMM. This study will be conducted in an epicenter of the Southern HIV epidemic: Alabama.
Full Title
UsNoW: PrEP Utilization through Increasing Social Capital Among Young Black Sexual Minority Men’s Networks with Women
Principal Investigators
Latesha Elopre, MD, MSPH
Sophia Hussen, MD, MPH
Co-Investigators
Michael Mugavero, MD, MHSc
Janet Turan, PhD
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH
John Schneider, MD
Dustin Long, PhD
Institutions
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Emory University
Florida State University
One Cow Standing
Funders
U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Vuka+
Vuka+ is designed to support women by providing health and wellness information, connection to a supportive community of other women, and resources about relationships, wellness, and sexual health.
Full Title
Effectiveness of Smartphone Application (Vuka+) for Adherence Support in Adolescent Girls and Young Women – Pilot and Type I Hybrid Implementation Trial
ClinicalTrials.gov #
NCT06897059 (RCT)
Principal Investigators
Homaira Hanif, PhD; Kate Muessig, PhD
Co-Investigators
Linda-Gail Bekker, MBChB, PhD; Elizabeth Tolley, PhD; Katherine Gill, MBChB; Steve Innes, MBChB, PhD; Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH; Gustavo Doncel, MD, PhD
Institutions
CONRAD
Florida State University
Eastern Virginia Medical School
FHI360
Desmond Tutu Health Foundation
One Cow Standing
Funders
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded via the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
Additional funding from Gilead Sciences through a Global Development Alliance