Reminder: Join us Next Thursday for the ACTION Lunch

Please join us for the June ACTION (AIDS Clinical Trials Information & Orientation Lunch) on June 14th at 1:00 PM at the DC CARE Consortium. DC CARE is located at 1156 15th Street NW Sweet 500, closest to the McPherson Metro.

We will have a panel discussion on Transgender Community Involvement in HIV/AIDS Clinical Research. What are the unique issues transgender trial participants face? How do researchers collect information about sex and gender in clinical studies? Join us for a panel presentation and discussion on transgender community involvement in HIV/AIDS Research.

As many of you know, the several DC Community Advisory Boards wrote a joint open letter on Sex & Gender that can be read online at www.aidsvaccine.org . Our goal is to change the way the NIH collects data on sex and gender in HIV/AIDS research to accurately reflect transgender populations and to increase the cultural competency of NIH NIAID DAIDS funded researchers in working with transgender trial participants.

I'm thrilled to say we have had a good response to our local DC letter from around the world. What once seemed an impossible goal has become a realistic and achievable goal, though there is still much work ahead. Of the six global networks funded by DAIDS, one (the HIV Vaccine Trials Network HVTN) has already expressed it's support. The Global CAB of the HVTN and the HVTN ethics working group has endorsed the letter. Two of the other six networks will be discussing the letter in the next two months, and the Community Partners (which is comprised of members of all six networks) will also be discussing the letter in the next month.

This lunch is an important opportunity to continue the dialogue on sex and gender with the NIH NIAID Division of AIDS, and to learn and share information about transgender community participation in HIV/AIDS research. I hope you can be there!

To RSVP for this event, click here. If that link doesn't work (idealist has been acting up lately) you can e-mail me or call 202 223 9550 ext 15.