DRIVE - IN Quality data and beyond – the beauty of partnership in a study on people who inject drugs in Vietnam Khuat Thi Hai Oanh Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) On behalf of DRIVE-IN team
A feasibility study hopefully will lead to a long-term cohort The cohort: to demonstrate the efficacy of a community-involved combination intervention to reduce HIV and HCV transmission among PWID.
Overall Objective to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an interventional cohort of PWID in Hai Phong, Vietnam. Expectation: the enrolment and follow-up of various hard-to-reach subgroups of PWID is feasible in the local context.
Specific objectives 1.Establishing an operational research network including physicians, epidemiologists, lab experts, social scientists, drug user community, etc. 2.Implementing and facilitating access to a package of PWID-driven prevention activities (harm reduction and sexual health) among participants 3.Implementing an efficient study management centre (field coordination, data management)
Specific objectives 4.Completing the recruitment of the different subgroups of PWID within 6 months 5.Achieving a good follow-up of participants 6.Engaging local laboratory in research process according to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) 7.Evaluating the commitment and support of local and national authorities.
Design: 2 stages RDS cross sectional survey as the baseline and the recruitment mechanism: ~600 participants. Questionnaire and lab tests. Follow-up: for 6 months, 250 participants. Questionnaire and lab tests.
Learning along the way Documentation of every step, successes and failures. Qualitative studies: – Reaching the new injectors. – Investigation on drop-out. – Feedback on the study. – Other unforeseen issues.
Multi-continent, muti-disciplinary consortium France/Europe: Research Unit U1058, Montpellier Uni & CHU. Research Unit Inserm U988, French National Institute of Public Health Surveillance US/America: Beth Israel Medical Centre, New York City Vietnam: Hai Phong Medical University Hai Phong Provincial AIDS Center Community organizations of drug users, sex workers and MSM in Hai Phong led by Friendship Arms, together with SCDI Institute for Social Development Studies
Weekly conference call
Painstaking partnership development ANRS staff visited, revisited, re-revisited to discuss, re-discuss, re- re-discuss… Brought people together. 2 years to develop partnership. Submission, re- submission.
The community at the heart
Not a random selection
Working together
Data quality Recruitment of the right participants. Engagement of participants. Commitment and dedication of research team. Competency of research team.
Beyond data The engagement of different partners. The partnership between people and institutions. The development of research capacity for the developing country. The learning for developed countries.
Thank you!