Implementing Implementation Science: An Approach for HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment Programs.

Though great progress has been realized over the last decade in extending HIV prevention, care and treatment in some of the least resourced settings of the world, a substantial gap remains between what we know works and what we are actually achieving in HIV programs. To address this, leaders have called for the adoption of an implementation science framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIV programs. Implementation science (IS) is a multidisciplinary scientific field that seeks generalizable knowledge about the magnitude of, determinants of and strategies to close the gap between evidence and routine practice for health in real-world settings.

Developing and using a partnership covenant to guide a study of late HIV diagnosis.

Background: Late diagnosis of HIV is an important problem in the United States, particularly in ethnically and socially diverse communities.

Objectives: We created and used a partnership covenant to ensure our adherence to community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles as we began studying and addressing individual and structural barriers to timely HIV testing.

Methods: Sample CBPR principles were used to help develop a partnership covenant that in turn was used in steering committee (SC) meetings to gauge our adherence to CBPR in our work together and in the field.