Support the effective dissemination and utilization of HIV/AIDS information to all constituent communities of NIH.

• Rapidly disseminate new research findings with information on their potential implications on prevention, care, and treatment of HIV-infected individuals.
• Expand access to current treatment and patient management guidelines including state-of-the-art care and information on clinical trials using multiple technologies such as, but not limited to, on-line access AIDSTRIALS and AIDSDRUGS data bases and voice access (HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service and the AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service).
• Improve current and develop and evaluate new techniques for the two-way communication of information to scientific and lay audiences, particularly to hard-to-reach populations.
• Support community groups to access HIV/AIDS information resources in their development of educational materials.
• Develop and disseminate educational information.
• Enhance understanding of HIV and basic and clinical research processes by health care providers, community-based HIV/AIDS service organizations, and persons with HIV/AIDS.
• Develop mechanisms for rapidly disseminating information on research in progress to the research community in order to increase collaboration, reduce duplication of effort, and enhance the discovery process.
• Enhance communication with the pharmaceutical industry concerning research on the development of therapeutics and vaccines.
• Communicate and exchange information internationally on topics such as prevention and treatment information, patient management guidelines, and research results that impact on the care of HIV-infected individuals, particularly in developing countries.
• Support the exchange of basic, clinical, and behavioral research information at community, regional, national, and international conferences and workshops.
• Provide on-line, in advance when possible, the full text of abstracts and other information from scientific meetings.
• Collect, archive, and make available existing data from NIH-supported basic and applied research for secondary data analysis.
• Disseminate widely information concerning specimen repositories, including existing repositories, specimens available and relevant information concerning cohorts, contact people, and the process for obtaining access to samples.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of communication efforts by appropriate means, including obtaining feedback from target audience members and information dissemination intermediaries.

• Develop, test and evaluate innovative strategies for effectively reaching scientific audiences with relevant HIV information.
• Investigate how and under what circumstances different communication and dissemination strategies influence the adoption of scientifically based HIV behavior change interventions and clinical practice activities in various populations.
• Identify obstacles to information dissemination and develop and test possible ways to overcome these obstacles.
• Assess the information needs of, and sources of information used by, various audiences, including biomedical and behavioral research communities, health care providers, service providers, people with HIV and their advocates, at-risk populations, and the general public.
• Investigate the adoption of new technologies for disseminating basic and applied research findings.
• Develop, improve, and evaluate the interface between human factors and emerging technologies for information exchange in HIV/AIDS.

• Build ongoing partnerships between community-based organizations and basic, clinical, and behavioral researchers through both the intramural and extramural research programs to encourage exchange of information and experience throughout the research process to enhance research, treatment, and prevention efforts.
• For example, this could be accomplished through requirements in appropriate funding proposals to establish appropriate communication and coordination.
• Promote closer interagency collaboration within PHS on information dissemination programs.
• Coordinate collaboration among all ICDs in the provision of information about their clinical trials for HIV/AIDS to the AIDS Clinical Trial Information Service.
• Maintain an interface with the Cancer Information Service and PDQ to provide information on clinical trials for AIDS-related malignancies.
• Support use of HIV/AIDS resource on the Internet to facilitate domestic (NIH and non-NIH) and international research collaboration and data sharing. Continue collaborations with the United Nations/World Health Organization (WHO) AIDS program, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and international AIDS agencies or societies to obtain and disseminate information about international clinical trials.
• Collaborate with public and health sciences libraries to facilitate community group access to needed information.
• Work within DHHS, including HCFA, and with the private sector in the development of medical standards of care for determining guidelines for reimbursement.