Research Committee Meeting Highlights | 9-15-21

Hep Free NYC Research Committee Meeting Highlights

09-15-2021 (1 – 3 PM EST) via Zoom

In attendance: See below

Hep Free NYC Research Committee Goal: Create a network and foster collaboration among NYC hepatitis focused researchers.

Committee Chairs:
Ben Eckhardt, MD, NYU and Bellevue – Benjamin.Eckhardt@nyulangone.org
Shashi Kapadia, MD, Cornell – shk9078@med.cornell.edu

• HCV Elimination planning update
  • Elimination plan timeline – drafted plan to be shared with a wider audience by the end of the year
  • Looking for outside reviewers of the elimination plan once it’s ready for external review and comments (researchers, advocacy committee members, etc.)
  • HCV Elimination Among Young PWID Presentation – Dr. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert
  • What role do we want researchers/this academic partnership/committee to have in this process?
    • Evaluation component
      • Metrics from the survey will be monitored to track elimination
        • Reinfection (NYC DOHMH uses surveillance data to identify people who are thought to be cured and who have a subsequent positive RNA and were reaching out to providers to let them know.)
        • Treatment overall and by neighborhood
      • Items related to activities such as programs and providers
        • Need input on how to report these activities and look at them over time
      • There isn’t a clear estimate of how many people are undiagnosed with hep B or C in NYC
        • Will need to collaborate with researchers to do a serosurvey to obtain this information
      • Next steps would be to have groups to go over the different strategies and activities to identify how to monitor and evaluate those activities to ensure they are being done or how they can be done.
      • Other topic of concern for addressing hepatitis elimination
        • Reinfection- can be addressed by expanding treatment of PWID where they are we’re able to make access to treatment more universally available
        • Expanding treatment access to PWID:
          • Within methadone clinics, needle exchange programs
• Recruitment of additional committee members
  • • • • • • Offer this meeting to broader range of people
              • Epi’s and statisticians (or other stakeholders)
            • Next steps: Finding Hep B researchers

Go to the Hep Free NYC Research Committee Webpage and community research board to recruit for studies or to post jobs.

Attendance:

1. Angelica Bocour, Viral Hepatitis Surveillance Director, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, abocour@health.nyc.gov
2. Benjamin Eckhardt, Infectious Diseases Fellow, New York-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medical Center, eckhardt@nyumc.org
3. Brianna Norton, Medical Director, New York Harm Reduction Educators, bnorton@montefiore.org
4. Lia Alleyne, Health Educator, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, lalleyne@health.nyc.gov
5. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, CUNY School of Public Health, mateu-gelabert@sph.cuny.edu
6. Shashi Kapadia, Instructor in Medicine/ Infectious Diseases, New York-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medicine, shk9078@med.cornell.edu

Last Updated on October 6, 2021 by HepFree NYC