Structure of the ATN Network
The ATN Operations and Collaborations Center (OCC) is managed by the research services organization Westat. The main function of the OCC is:
- Assisting the development and implementation of the ATN scientific agenda and the infrastructure
- Providing organizational support and site consortium capacity for the ATN’s research projects and with other external collaborations.
- Facilitating communication among organizational leadership to support an adolescent-specific research agenda with emphasis on efficient communication.
- Coordinating efforts and scientific collaboration across multiple research projects and institutions in the ATN and with other networks, including but not limited to participant accrual, staff and site consortium training, quality assurance procedures, site monitoring, and the site consortium operation and integrity for the Research Projects and other collaboration study databases.
- Supporting the ATN Scientific Leadership Center (SLC) to rapidly respond to evolving scientific priorities through open competitive solicitations of research projects.
The ATN Scientific Leadership Center (SLC) is managed by the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at Florida State University’s College of Nursing and Cook County Health. The SLC is responsible for the overall scientific leadership and governance of the network and its activities. The SLC manages multiple interdependent functional components and research activities and consists of the Scientific Leadership Group (SLG) and Statistical and Data Management Core (SDMC).
SCs are made up of established collaborations among clinics, academic universities, community-based organizations, health departments, and other partners who utilize innovations for successful recruitment and enrollment of participants. SCs also participate in the development of trials and provide enrollment sites, local laboratory capacity, and pharmacy services. The SCs establish their own leadership model with meaningful and sustained community engagement efforts to support youth access to HIV prevention and care services.
The SLG is an innovative group comprised of experts from diverse fields and backgrounds that provide the necessary multidisciplinary expertise to set, prioritize and manage the ATN scientific agenda. The SLC is responsible for developing and refining the research agenda, convening working groups as needed, prioritizing emerging research projects, efficiently managing the development of clinical protocols, implementing, and completing clinical trials and ensuring timely publication and communication of results. The SLG will provide the necessary multidisciplinary expertise to set, prioritize and manage the ATN scientific agenda.
The SLG consists of the following teams/committees:
The Biomedical Therapeutics, Comorbidities, and Coinfections SLG provides guidance on biomedical products for treatment (naïve and non-adherent youth) and prevention (including long-acting formulations), delivery systems (e.g., injectables, implants, transdermal, and multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs), and product acceptability, usability, and desirability. They also help address HIV-related comorbidities and complications, coinfections, such sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and COVID-19.
The Biomedical Therapeutics, Comorbidities, and Coinfections SLG provides guidance on biomedical products for treatment (naïve and non-adherent youth) and prevention (including long-acting formulations), delivery systems (e.g., injectables, implants, transdermal, and multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs), and product acceptability, usability, and desirability. They also help address HIV-related comorbidities and complications, coinfections, such sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and COVID-19.
The Equity, Inclusion, and Engagement SLG assesses equity (e.g., health and social inequities, dedication to anti-racism) and inclusion of populations historically excluded from the research process (e.g., minors, diverse populations, “hard-to-reach” youth) in ATN trials. This SLG promotes the development and engagement of ATN stakeholders, such as youth, parents/trusted adults, teachers, religious leaders, social media influencers; in addition, it also supports advocacy, implementation, and dissemination of ATN research among youth and their communities.
The Institutions, Organizations, and Policy SLG provides direction on health services research and service delivery, including the role of providers, care transitions, rapid/same-day pre-exposure prophylaxis/antiretroviral therapy (PrEP/ART), telemedicine, and care delivery in non-clinical settings. This SLG also provides support for understanding the impact of public policy and laws (including sexual education, immigration, HIV criminalization, harm reduction), as well as facilitating the evaluation of ATN trials to ensure their sustainability, such as on their economic impact inform the implementation.
The Laboratory Diagnostics and Mobile Technologies SLG provides guidance on a variety of technical aspects of ATN trials, including but not limited to: pharmacokinetics (PK)/ pharmacodynamics (PD) of biomedical products; novel testing diagnostics, including home-based and self-testing for diagnosis (HIV/sexually transmitted infections [STIs]) and adherence biomarkers (viral load, drug metabolites); COVID-19 diagnostics; adherence measurement (including electronic monitoring devices); mobile health (mHealth) tools and platforms.
The Assets, Resources, Challenges and Context (ARCC) SLG advises ATN trials and projects on how to best address the multilevel factors that impact the health and wellbeing of youth, including: individual factors (e.g. mental health and well-being, substance use, violence & trauma); interpersonal factors (e.g. social support, relationships, peers, families, social networks); community factors (e.g. cultural competency of providers, neighborhoods, geography); and structural factors (e.g. laws, policy, stigma, systemic racism, heterosexism, cisgenderism).
The Bioethics Committee SLG provides broad guidance on approaches for protocol development, implementation, and dissemination.
The SDMC is responsible for providing comprehensive data management and statistical analysis leadership along with state-of-the-art clinical trial management systems and laboratory information management systems to ensure complete, high-quality data in coordination with the SLC to design and implement research projects. The SDMC is comprised of an experienced, diverse team with leadership skills and expertise in statistical analyses, HIV epidemiology, statistical modeling and cost analysis, adolescent HIV intervention development and evaluation, equity and inclusive excellence in research, management of network science, and implementation of multi-site, multi-study biomedical and behavioral clinical trials. The SDMC leadership team combines the HIV intervention research expertise of Drs. Audrey Pettifor and Kate Muessig; the public health and NIH-funded Data Coordinating Center for research networks experience of Emmes, a full-service CRO, led by Dr. Ravinder Anand and Jeff Mitchell; and the statistical modeling expertise of Harvard University clinician-scientists, Drs. Anne Neilan and Andrea Ciaranello .
The C-D Hub collaborates with research teams, SCs, youth, the SLG, and other stakeholders to design and circulate communication products diverse audiences in a timely, accessible, and culturally-relevant manner while empowering key stakeholders in their efforts to translate research into practice and maximize social, economic, or political impacts. Dissemination products may include infographics, zines, videos, webinars, slide decks, and other tools about ATN research findings and adjacent health topics. With guidance from collaborators and a steering committee, the C-D Hub manages social media campaigns for participant recruitment in ATN research studies. The C-D Hub oversees the Subject Matter Research Consultants (SMRCs) who provide guidance throughout the ATN structure.
The SMRCs are a conglomerate of diverse young professionals who are part-time employees at the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at Florida State University. The purpose of this dynamic group is to serve as a resource and provide guidance for researchers to improve the quality of their research. The SMRCs are a core facet of the ATN and are deeply embedded into all aspects of the project including as members of research study protocol teams and SLGs, where they will provide ongoing consultation.
The NCAB consists of youth representatives from each of the Site Consortiums (SCs) and will relay community-based strategies for increasing participant recruitment, provide community/participant perspectives on scheduling study visits and barriers to retention, and deliver community input into study design and dissemination of study results.
Funders
The NIH, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. The NIH is made up of 27 different components called Institutes and Centers. Each has its own specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems.
NICHD’s mission is to lead research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all.
NIDA’s mission is to advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual and public health.
NIMH’s mission is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.
Meet the ATN Leadership
Principal Investigators
Barbara Driver, MS
Dan Reirden, M.D.
Barbara Driver is the Co-Principal Investigator of the ATN Operations and Collaboration Center (OCC) at Westat. She has been involved in HIV care and research throughout her 35-year career, which includes serving as Project Director of the ATN Data and Operations Center from 2003 to 2016. Ms. Driver focuses primarily on research operations, regulatory compliance, and fiscal management and oversight. She is excited to collaborate with so many extraordinarily dedicated groups and individuals on addressing HIV care and management for this high-risk population.
Daniel H. Reirden, MD, FAAP, FACP, AAHIVS, is the Co-Principal Investigator of the ATN OCC. He is an attending physician in the Sections of Adolescent Medicine and Infectious Disease at The Children’s Hospital Colorado, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. He is the Medical Director of the CHIP Youth Program and he founded The TRUE Center for Gender Diversity at Children’s Hospital Colorado. His clinical and research interests involve the care and prevention of HIV in adolescents and young adults and the care of LGBTQ+ children, adolescents and young adults.
Principal Investigators
Sybil Hosek, PhD
Lisa B. Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH (she/her) is a Distinguished and Endowed McKenzie Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Research in the College of Nursing at the Florida State University (FSU). She is the founding director of the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at FSU.
Dr. Hightow-Weidman is an expert in the development, implementation and evaluation of digital health interventions (DHIs) to address the HIV Care Continuum for adolescents and young adults, particularly among sexual and gender minority populations. Her research interests include technology-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions for adolescents and emerging adults, specifically interventions that incorporate game-based elements, self-monitoring and tracking and provision of social support to increase engagement and impact health behavior. She has developed technology-based interventions that aim to increase uptake and adherence to biomedical prevention and treatment, to increase HIV diagnosis, linkage and retention in care and to ameliorate stigma and increase resilience. She has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles on these topics and has a proven track record of successful funding from the National Institutes of Health, HIV/AIDS Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sybil Hosek, PhD, is a Research Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS) at the University of Illinois Chicago. She has over 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of HIV-related research studies and behavioral interventions. Her current research focuses on biomedical HIV prevention interventions for adolescents and young adults, including PrEP and microbicides, and the development of behavioral interventions to improve uptake and adherence to new biomedical strategies. In addition to her independent NIH grants focused on adolescent and young adult MSM and transgender youth in the US, Dr. Hosek has joined the protocol teams of several adolescent/young adult PrEP safety and demonstration studies focused on adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.
The SLC PIs are responsible for assembling the necessary multidisciplinary teams of established investigators to set and participate in the ATN research agenda, and clearly outline the priority areas, plans, processes, and timelines for achieving the ATN’s mission.
The SLC consists of multiple interdependent functional components and research activities and is responsible for the overall scientific leadership and governance of the network and its activities. The SLC consists of the Scientific Leadership Group (SLG) and Statistical and Data Management Core (SDMC).
The EC is comprised of the SLC PIs, the OCC PIs, NIH Institutes, and other selected scientific experts and community representatives. The EC oversees the integration of efforts across the ATN though leadership, efficient communication, coordination, and scientific collaboration across the multiple participating research institutions, as well as close interaction with NIH program staff members. The EC oversees the ATN and SLC with identifying emergent scientific priorities and will govern the implementation of research studies and funding decisions with assistance from the OCC. It will also help develop and facilitate collaborations with other networks and investigators. In consultation with NIH scientists, the EC will consult with an External Scientific Panel (ESP), as needed.
The ESP is an independent External Advisory Group convened by the EC with assistance from the OCC and in consultation with the SLC, as needed, to review the scientific progress and activities of the ATN, as well as for other collaborations, with the goal of maintaining the highest level of scientific progress and relevance of proposed and ongoing projects.