DRIVE - IN Quality data and beyond – the

beauty of partnership in a study on people who inject drugs in Vietnam

Khuat Thi Hai OanhCenter 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

SurveillanceUS/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!