I am interested in HIV/AIDS research with particular interest in using new and innovative technologies and social media for measuring behaviors and improving access to HIV prevention services such as HIV testing. Using my productive collaborations with academic and governmental colleagues in Iran and here at UCSF, I am working on an exploratory study to addresses the most necessary next steps in bringing the marginalized, at-risk networks of female sex workers (FSW) into HIV prevention and care. I seek the best ways to combine social networks, social media applications, self-testing technology, social media-based peer referral, and incentives to reach previously untested populations. Moreover, I am interested to explore new strategies to recruit and study the clients and partners of FSW successfully. If successful, the program can be quickly brought to scale and substantially improve HIV case finding in a concentrated epidemic in a region of the world with severe barriers to prevention and care for women and other marginalized populations. The approach can also serve as a platform for the delivery of other HIV prevention interventions with proven efficacy. For example, the combination of social media, peer-referral, and self-testing can also recruit high-risk HIV-negative persons into pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programs.
