Leveraging a Strategic Alliance of Community-Based Implementers and Researchers to Characterize, Protocolize, and Scale Up Local Implementation Strategies for Ending the HIV Epidemic among Latino MSM

Abstract. In response to NOT-AI-23-070, we propose to characterize, assess, and protocolize implementation strategies that HIV organizations are using to improve the reach of PrEP and mental health/substance use (MH/SU) treatments to Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM), and then build a platform to scale up

these strategies to other US Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) jurisdictions. Current reach of these services to LMSM does not meet their needs, fueling HIV disparities; thus, relevant implementation strategies are urgently needed. In an innovative yet underused approach that contrasts with traditional implementation research,

successful implementation strategies already used by HIV organizations will be scaled up and disseminated through a “ground up” approach. With EHE grant support, our team formed SOMOS Alianza (San Juan, Orlando, Miami Organizational Strategic Alliance), comprising community-based implementers and

researchers in EHE jurisdictions that are linked by high HIV incidence among LMSM, migration, and geographic proximity. To improve reach to LMSM, SOMOS Alianza implementers use a variety of implementation strategies that they consider to be successful, feasible, and culturally relevant for LMSM and their organizations. These strategies may be more feasible and culturally relevant than those produced in

traditional research-to-practice approaches. We propose to leverage the infrastructure and trusted collaborations inherent in SOMOS Alianza to rigorously characterize and identify strategies these organizations use that align with the evidence base for implementation determinants and behavior change methods, using

innovative implementation science methods, including Rapid Assessment Procedure Informed Clinical Ethnography and reverse implementation mapping. We will protocolize strategies that meet our inclusion criteria and build an online Implementation Strategy Dashboard, following user-centered design, which we will

evaluate for usability and impact. Specific aims are 1. To characterize, assess, and protocolize the implementation strategies currently used by SOMOS Alianza organizations to improve PrEP and MH/SU treatment reach to LMSM. 2. To build a Dashboard of strategies that meet Aim 1 inclusion criteria for improving

the reach of PrEP and MH/SU treatment to LMSM. 3. To assess the Dashboard’s usability and associated organizational outcomes in HIV organizations across US EHE jurisdictions. Completion of these aims will address the suboptimal reach of PrEP and MH/SU treatments to LMSM by drawing primarily on implementer

expertise. Our innovative approach of scaling up implementation strategies from existing local practices in regions where LMSM experience significant disparities disrupts traditional research-to-practice pathways and is likely to have a powerful and sustained public health impact. Our findings will impact the field by 1)

identifying contextually appropriate and feasible implementation strategies and 2) developing and evaluating a dashboard for scaling up the strategies in pursuit of achieving EHE goals among LMSM across the US.