Cizik School of Nursing faculty members are among the first researchers to receive seed funding from the Texas Development Center for AIDS Research (TX D-CFAR).

Emily Barr, PhD, MSN, CPNP, CNM, will use her TX D-CFAR grant for a pilot project titled “TEC-HIV: Telehealth Use and Engagement in Care of Young Adults Living with HIV.” Only 40-50% of people age 15-24 who are living with HIV will continue receiving care within a year after transitioning to adult services, Barr noted in her abstract. Her project will survey HIV care providers and review charts from high-volume HIV clinics in the Houston area to assess the barriers and benefits of telehealth for engaging with this vulnerable population.

Meagan Whisenant, PhD, APRN, is applying symptom science expertise developed as an oncological nurse scientist to her TX D-CFAR study titled “Characterizing Symptoms Among Subpopulations of Persons Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus.” Her grant will fund collection of preliminary data to support future NIH grant applications to identify molecular and genetic contributions to symptom burden, develop interventions for symptom management, and validate a measurement tool that can be used in clinical trials. Co-investigators are Roberto Arduino, MD; Jordan Lake, MD; and Karen Vigil, MD, from McGovern Medical School, and Tito Mendoza, PhD, and Xin Shelley Wang, MD, from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Assistant Professor Veronica J. Brady, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, is bringing her research interest in diabetes to bear in a project funded through a CFAR led by the University of Alabama. With a $15,000 seed grant, Brady’s team is exploring the intersection of HIV, diabetes, and depression and seeking to answer important questions about this subpopulation with regard to symptoms and glycemic outcomes. Collaborating with Brady on the study titled “Impact of Depression and HIV Symptoms on Glycemic Outcomes (A1c, BG) Among Patients Living with HIV and Type 2 Diabetes” are Amanda Willig, PhD, from the University of Alabama; Julie Zuniga, PhD, from The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing; and Stan Cron, MSPH, at Cizik School of Nursing.