Breaking Down the Siloes: Developing Effective Multidisciplinary HIV Research Teams

Abstract

As the HIV epidemic nears its 35 year mark, the role of multidisciplinary approaches to HIV research has become increasingly important. Development of diverse, cross-cutting research teams has been found to be key to engaging and retaining participants in population-based studies; it is also a crucial component of designing studies capable of examining the sensitive and nuanced issues that surround HIV related risk and adherence behavior. Expanding our understanding of these issues is central to being able to overcome them and ultimately to the development of best practices for translation of research discovery into improvements in prevention and care. The objectives of this paper are to characterize the importance of multidisciplinary teams in HIV research where they are critical to gaining information that can have a positive impact on the epidemic and to propose specific methods for creating teams to conduct research with optimal public health impact.

Health Technology-Enabled Interventions for Adherence Support and Retention in Care Among US HIV-Infected Adolescents and Young Adults: An Integrative Review

“…Internet-based recruitment has been tested among HIV-infected adolescents, however further evaluation is needed before recommendations can be made [65]. Development of multidisciplinary teams with engagement of community stakeholders is key to retaining study participants, and will necessitate removal of institutional barriers to staff and faculty diversity [66]. Hence, an overall reversal in the current patterns for underrepresentation of HIV-infected youth in clinical research trials will be contingent upon a robust research agenda aimed to foster collaboration between academic and clinical settings, and also with HIV-infected youth.…”

A critical realist synthesis of cross-disciplinary health policy and systems research: defining characteristic features, developing an evaluation framework and identifying challenges

“…However, depending on the degree of cross-disciplinary integration, the research questions may differ across the involved disciplines (multidisciplinary health policy and systems research (MDHPSR)), may be shared between disciplines or have been mutually agreed upon (interdisciplinary health policy and systems research (IDHPSR) and transdisciplinary health policy and systems research (TDHPSR)). Some of the articles argue that combinations of findings from different monodisciplinary studies about a common health problem, which were not conducted in a predetermined •Co-design, co-investigation and cocreation limited to participating disciplines [22,57,74] •Philosophy of transient and intermittent conceptual, theoretical and methodological integration [55,75] •Focuses on explicit exchange of perspectives, concepts and methods [68,74], reciprocal discipline-specific action [54,60] •Integration traverse stakeholder, disciplinary, organisational and professional boundaries [20,53,59,67] •Formative scientific team [20,52,77] •Co-design, co-investigation and co-creation over disciplinary limits [20,52,67,74] •Philosophy of flexibility and ongoing integration in response to new information about the problem [20,28,74] •Reflects robust systematic interplay between research stakeholders (academic and nonacademic) and elements (design, data collection and analysis) of the research [20,76,78] Outcome •More basic than action-oriented output [13,75,79] •Output is the sum of individual evaluations [21,23,70] •Diverse perspectives to the topic being studied [13,21,…”

“…Commitment to a cross-disciplinary communication framework [13,21,56,57,63,68,70,72,79] Are there clear efforts to ensure effective cross-disciplinary communication throughout the project?…”

Building a More Diverse Workforce in HIV/AIDS Research: The Time has Come

“…Brewer et al [45] provide a perspective of the mentee from Black early-career HIV investigators, reflecting on their needs, challenges, and opportunities regarding the right mentor and mentorship environment as well as contributions and ''threats'' to success. Subsequent papers in the mentoring process section discuss tailored mentoring programs for Latinos and other individuals from diverse communities [46], cultural competency of the mentor in HIV research [40], multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary HIV research teams within mentoring programs [47], HIV network-based mentoring programs [48], and mentor training to improve mentee skills and outcomes [49]. The final section focuses upon next steps and directions for mentoring programs, going beyond individual level issues to considerations that may lead to career success.…”