Research has shown that cisgender women account for nearly 20% of new HIV infections, but they comprise only 10% of PrEP users, largely due to a lack of awareness and perceived stigma. With her first NIH grant, TC CFAR faculty member Allison P. Pack, PhD, MPH, seeks to address this by leveraging electronic health record technology to empower women to make informed decisions about PrEP in primary care. 

Allison Pack

The Encouraging Multiple PrEP Options for Women Engaged in PRimary Care, or EMPOWER, grant includes a Community Advisory Board of diverse cisgender women and a Scientific Advisory Board of HIV clinicians and researchers, including TC CFAR members Jessica Ridgway, MD, MS, and Amy Johnson, PhD. Both boards will meaningfully inform the study’s materials and activities. In addition, Pack’s research team plans to present their grant to TC CFAR community affiliate members who focus on HIV prevention programs for cisgender women and incorporate their feedback of the study. 

“EMPOWER provides information about PrEP that women are currently unlikely to receive in a clear, concise manner,” said Pack, a research assistant professor in general internal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “To our knowledge, it is the first multilevel electronic health record-based intervention strategy designed to promote PrEP decision making specifically among adult women seen in primary care in the US.”   

EMPOWER is a two-year, clinic randomized pilot study that will be conducted with 12 primary care clinics affiliated with Northwestern Medicine in Cook County, an Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative priority area. Building on the work that Pack’s research team has done at Northwestern Medicine, the grant offers an innovative approach to the delivery of PrEP information to women in primary care by using electronic health record technology to: 

  • Identify English and Spanish-speaking women in primary care. 
  • Deliver via the patient portal a health literacy and multimedia strategy detailing PrEP options.  
  • Enable women to discretely self-schedule a visit to discuss PrEP with their own primary care clinician or a female primary care physician with proven expertise in PrEP delivery to diverse individuals.  
  • Provide clinicians with clinical decision support to inform non-stigmatizing counseling on PrEP options for women and facilitate orders during a scheduled PrEP visit. 

Pack joined the faculty at Northwestern during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a new, early-stage investigator, she found working with the TC CFAR to be incredibly welcoming and collaborative, which has helped support her HIV prevention research. 

“When I started at Northwestern, I was introduced to many TC CFAR members who gave me constructive feedback on my early grant ideas and supported my NIH applications with letters and enthusiasm,” said Pack. “My current grant was awarded in no small part due to the steadfast support of the TC CFAR.” 

For the grant, Pack’s research team has worked extensively with Feinberg’s Stacy Bailey, PhD, MPH, and David Liebovitz, MD. In addition to Bailey and Liebovitz, her team is now working closely with Feinberg’s Rachel Tatz, MD. 

“I am excited to be able to provide women with information and tools they can choose from to support – and empower – their sexual health,” Pack concluded.