Kristin Beima-Sofie
University of Washington, WA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Moving from pediatric to adult HIV care is a dangerous time for young people living with HIV. Many drop out of care during the switch, which leads to more illness and death.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Social Science
- Topics
youth living with HIV
adolescent HIV
transition to adult care
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Assess the needs, preferences, facilitators and barriers that youth living with HIV in Kenya face when moving to adult care, and use these findings to build a first iTake Charge digital prototype.
- Refine iTake Charge, a mobile toolkit with games, videos, animations and a provider interface, through the ADAPT-ITT adaptation process with youth, providers and policymakers, aiming for over 70% acceptability and feasibility.
- Test the effectiveness and implementation of iTake Charge in a hybrid pilot randomized clinical trial across 10 high-volume HIV care clinics in Kenya.
More about the research
In Kenya, earlier in-person transition support from this team's ATTACH program showed promise but required extra staff time and cost. No mobile health (mHealth) tools exist yet for young people in Kenya making this transition. This project asks whether a phone-based program could fill the gap.
Why it matters
Young people living with HIV in Kenya often stop receiving care when they move to adult clinics, leading to treatment failure and death. A low-cost mobile health tool could help them prepare for this transition and stay in care. This would support HIV treatment for a population that is a global priority for ending the epidemic.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Valencia Koomson
Tufts University, MA·Engineering
Adapt the Medtronic Empower Health app into AHOMKA, a Ghana-specific mobile health platform, using a user-centered design process that is revised step by step with feedback from patients and clinicians.
Matthew Hickey
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Identify patient-level barriers to taking blood pressure medication within an integrated HIV–hypertension care model in rural Kenya, using theory-informed mixed methods within the SEARCH SAPPHIRE trial.
Sarah Haynes
University of California-Davis, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Develop implementation strategies for a virtual T1D transition program using implementation mapping grounded in the COM-B model, which explains behavior through capability, opportunity and motivation.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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