Experimenting in the Social Media Lab at the CDC HIV Prevention Conference

By Josie Halpern-Finnerty

Last week we shared updates from the 2009 CDC HIV Prevention Conference. While at the conference, we had the opportunity to co-host a Social Media Lab with our CDC colleagues. The Lab was open throughout the conference, and participants were invited to come, sit down in front of a computer, and talk one-on-one or in small groups about using social media in response to HIV. Over 125 conference participants from community-based organizations, government agencies, national policy organizations, and academic research institutions sought out the Lab.

CDC's 2009 HIV Prevention Conference: “Innovation and Action to End the Epidemic”

By Michele Clark

The 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference is reaching over 3,500 of our colleagues in Atlanta this week. Thanks to conference organizers, this year’s highlights are shared to those unable to attend via Twitter: CDC NPIN , AIDS.gov , and others are tweeting with the hashtag #NHPC09 . CDC also provides conference participants with text message updates , and videotaped many of the presentations to broaden reach (CDC NPIN should have these posted around September 7th).

Miguel Gomez, AIDS.gov Director, presents at NHPC09

This morning, AIDS.gov Director Miguel Gomez presented on the plenary panel, “Advances in HIV Prevention Science and Technology.” The AIDS.gov presentation focused on how the HIV community can adopt new media tools to further their work. Miguel said, “we have a responsibility to learn about new media—to learn what clients are doing online, what new media is, and how to fit it into our overall HIV prevention planning.”

Sex::Tech: Using Technology to Reach Youth with HIV and Sexual Health Information

This week's post is by Jennie Anderson and Josie Halpern-Finnerty, AIDS.gov.

Last week at ISIS, Inc.'s Sex::Tech conference , we heard from leading voices in the field that we need to engage with our young audiences and use the tools they use to provide HIV and sexual health information.

As ISIS Executive Director Deb Levine said in her opening remarks, we must focus on being accessible, effective, relevant, innovative (in both our work and how we evaluate it), and ready to engage our communities in our work. A talented group of young African American students powerfully demonstrated this message in an interactive theater piece, BuckWorld One , which dealt with some of the factors affecting the choices young people make about sexual health.

Text Messaging for HIV Appointment and Medication Reminders - Part IV

This week, we're concluding our four-part series on texting appointment and medication reminders. After talking about why, how, and costs, today's post addresses privacy.

Howard Brown Health Center

What are some of the potential privacy concerns around texting appointment and medication reminders?

Texting appointment reminders is a new way of communicating, and therefore brings up concerns about HIPAA compliance. Our colleagues suggested the following important things to remember:

Text Messaging for HIV Appointment and Medication Reminders - Part III

In addition to why and how an organization might set up texting reminders, we're often asked about the cost. In tight economic times, this is a significant concern for many organizations. Can the cost of text messaging reminders ultimately save your organization time and money? Here's some information to help you decide.

What does implementing and maintaining texting reminders cost?

There isn't one answer when it comes to the cost of setting up text-messaging appointment reminders––it depends on what program you use and who is involved. As Whitman-Walker Clinic's Director of Medical Adherence, Justin Goforth, told us (and as we discussed in our post on how to use text messaging ), if you're encouraging your clients to use free online appointment reminders, the cost is really the staffs' time to learn the program and show it to your clients. But if you are planning to use texting as part of your appointment reminder system, you may want to consider using software that integrates the reminders with your clients' medical records and ensures that texts are delivered and kept private.