HIV/AIDS/STD Prevention Demonstration Projects for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority-serving Institutions

By Naima Morales Cozier, AIDS.gov Training Adviser

Naima Morales Cozier, AIDS.gov

The cultural diversity of communities of color is to be celebrated. We have overcome adversity and barriers at every turn with the hope of change. With this same determination, we face the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Communities of color disproportionately account for an alarming number of HIV/AIDS cases. As an Afro-Latina, HIV/AIDS prevention advocate, and public health professional, I am very familiar with our challenge. The statistics and numbers constantly run through my head: African Americans account for almost half the number of people living with HIV; Latino/Hispanics account for 17% of new HIV infections in the U.S. in 2006; rates for new infection among Native American/Alaskan Natives are higher than whites, though American Indians and Alaska Natives make up 1.5% of the total U.S. population. There is much work to be done.

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Leveraging Social Media and the Mobile Internet in Health Messaging

by Miguel Gomez, AIDS.gov Director

Susannah Fox, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Last week the Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report about mobile access . They found that more and more people are using their mobile phones, laptops, and other wireless devices to access the Internet. People who own a cell phone are also more likely to use it for activities other than talking, such as taking photos, sending text messages, playing games, recording videos, playing music, and sending or receiving email. The report also states that African-Americans and English-speaking Latinos continue to be among the most active users of the mobile web. More African-Americans (87%) and Latinos (87%) own a cell phone compared with whites (80%) and they are more likely to access the Internet from their phones.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project continues to be a source of information and guidance for AIDS.gov’s new media activities. Susannah Fox , Pew’s Associate Director for Digital Strategy, recently gave a presentation to the HHS Web Council. View her slides and listen to a recording of her presentation, Leveraging Social Media and the Mobile Internet in Health Messaging. Download the transcript. (PDF 184.2K)

Highlights from the Mobile Health 2010 Conference

By Miguel Gomez, AIDS.gov Director, and Jennie Anderson, AIDS.gov Communications Director

We recently had the pleasure of attending the Mobile Health 2010 Conference at Stanford University. The purpose of the conference was simple: “[to] highlight how today’s mobile technology can improve the health of everyday people.” We were honored to co-host the conference, and to present some of our thoughts on mobile planning for AIDS.gov. Our presentation focused on the importance of understanding how those we want to reach are using mobile. For example, in a typical month 24% of gay men compared with 16% of heterosexual men say they send a text message at least once a day — and knowing this has implications for our work.

We had the opportunity to speak with a number of our colleagues working in HIV and sexual health, and have compiled some of their thoughts and advice on using mobile in the video below. Having attended the conference in 2008 when it was called Texting4Health, it was exciting to see how many more people are diving in and sharing their enthusiasm about using mobile technologies for public health. In the end, all of us in the HIV community need to continue to learn more about our audiences’ use of mobile technologies to ensure that we are meeting their needs.

Are you using mobile to enhance your HIV-related work? Have thoughts about what folks at the conference had to say? We’d love to hear from you!

Why Mobile for AIDS.gov?

By Jeremy Vanderlan, AIDS.gov Web Developer

Later this month, social media and public health leaders from around the country will gather at Stanford for MobileHealth 2010 . We're pleased to co-host this conference with our colleagues at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab and the CDC. We'll be sharing our experiences from the conference on this blog. You can also follow the conference on Twitter @texting4health or get Facebook updates on the conference and mobile health applications and research.

We've talked a little bit about our AIDS.gov mobile strategy before, but today we want to take a step back and ask the more basic question, "why mobile for AIDS.gov?" While mobile websites and mobile applications are getting a lot of attention, not all websites and their content are suitable for developing as a mobile platform. Before deciding if mobile is right for AIDS.gov, we asked ourselves:

A Conversation with Project Inform

Guest post by Alan McCord, Director of Information and Outreach, and Dana Van Gorder, ED, Project Inform

We use this blog to share some of the resources and work being done in the HIV community, focusing on organizations that are using new media to get the word out and enhance their services. As we've mentioned before, it's important to make use of ALL the tools available, including one of the most basic, and ubiquitous, the telephone. We asked Alan McCord, Director of Information and Outreach, and Dana Van Gorder, ED, of Project Inform , to tell us more about their work and the role of new and more traditional media. Here is what they had to say: