January 5, 2024
by Ed Salinas
The Sociostructural Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (SISCI) is a newly established coordination hub that works with five NIH-funded R01 projects across the US. The projects study structural and social determinants of health, as well as the structural interventions required to improve HIV prevention, treatment, and linkage to care. SISCI intends to advance the field of HIV implementation science within the US so that larger structural issues that impact HIV care can be addressed.
SISCI is co-directed by Brian Mustanski, PhD, and Nanette Benbow, MAS. Mustanski is also the director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research and the director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH). ISGMH research assistant professor alithia zamantakis, PhD, is SISCI’s project director and leads the initiative.
“SISCI’s role is to provide methodological support to these projects. These five projects are testing interventions for specific marginalized populations, like rural men who have sex with men or justice-involved individuals. We want to support the scale up of these interventions and work with projects to incorporate common data elements that can allow us to ask different and important questions about structural interventions and social determinants of health,” said alithia.
The initiative has three specific aims:
- Assist the companion R01s through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and expert consultation on social determinants of health models and methods.
- Integrate implementation and effectiveness outcome data across R01 studies.
- Advance the field of IS to reduce HIV disparities and application of D&I methods leading to sustainment, health equity, and scale-up.
Additionally, SISCI will support the five projects it coordinates with trainings, workshops, and fellowships for early career investigators and implementation practitioners.
Visit SISCI’s website to learn more about the initiative and the HIV prevention projects it supports.