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HIV Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute
Background
RETI 2012 Summer Training Program Faculty, Fellows, and Staff
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The Fordham HIV Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI) is a 5 year training grant sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (# 1R25DA031608-01, Principal Investigator, Celia B. Fisher, Director Center for Ethics Education). The RETI provides early career investigators in the social, behavioral, medical and public health fields with an opportunity to gain research ethics training. In doing so, RETI addresses the urgent need for HIV investigators who can identiy and address ethical issues, engage drug using and other at-risk communities in the construction and evaluation of population sensitive research protections, and generate empirical data to inform ethical practice and policies for HIV prevention science.
Population statistics on the HIV/AIDS epidemic are daunting. During 2008 more than 2.5 million adults and children became infected with HIV and by the end of the year an estimated 33.4 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS. That year witnessed 2 million more deaths from AIDS increasing to 25 million the number of people who have died from AIDS since 1981. Despite recent improvements in access to antiretroviral treatment and the success of needle exchange and other prevention programs, the rise in HIV infections continues in these populations in the U.S. and in developing and transitional countries.
The continued development and implementation of effective interventions and policies designed to prevent, reduce and ameliorate health disparities in HIV/AIDS is dependent on the knowledge generated from interventions tested by HIV scientists. Along with the benefits of a global HIV/AIDS research agenda are ethical challenges associated with the multiple vulnerabilities of persons within these populations and the unique nature of communities in which the research is conducted.
The burdens of HIV/AIDS falls hardest on a nation’s poor, people who inject drugs, the disempowered (women, prisoners), stigmatized populations (men who have sex with men, drug users), and marginalized racial/ethnic or tribal groups. These vulnerabilities add to the complexity of ethical decision-making in HIV prevention research. Through years of experience, seasoned HIV investigators have acquired the knowledge and skills to make significant contributions to HIV ethical practices. However, early career HIV investigators have few opportunities for formal research ethics training or ethics consultation with senior colleagues.
Specifically, the RETI aims to:
- Expand fellows' knowledge of and capacity to address key ethical issues in HIV prevention research with drug using and other at-risk communities
- Provide fellows with the skills to ethically engage participants and communities in the construction of participant protections that reflect the values and merit the trust of all stakeholders in HIV prevention research
- Increase fellows' capacity to conduct research that will generate data to inform HIV prevention research practices and policies
- Create and sustain an information and communication network for fellows, faculty and others in the field for enhancing ethical knowledge, ethical dialogue and future professional collaborations in HIV prevention research ethics
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Please visit our Summer Training Program, Mentored Research Project and FAQ pages for additional information about the RETI program.
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