The Campbell Foundation
Helping Make HIV/AIDS History Since 1995
The Campbell Foundation Awards $85K Grant
to Developers of HIV-Assist Mobile App
FORT LAUDERDALE – June 3, 2021 – Imagine a mobile app that helps physicians determine the best drug treatment regimen for those living with HIV/AIDS. Maunank Shah, MD, PhD. not only has imagined it, but with an $85,000 grant from The Campbell Foundation, he plans to take his idea from the drawing board to mobile phones around the world.
Shah, an associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is the co-inventor of HIV-ASSIST (HIV Antiretroviral Selection Support and Interactive Search Tool), a web-based, online interactive site that allows for patient-centered, individualized, and evidence-based decision making and education for providers choosing ART regimens for people living with HIV.
His goal is to create a user-friendly, mobile device version of HIV-ASSIST. Developed over the last six years, the web-based version of HIV-ASSIST uses a multiple-criteria decision analysis framework, that evaluates the approximately 2,000 possible 2-, 3-, and 4-drug antiretroviral combinations and generates a ranked list of those recommendations specific to any patient
encounter. The tool’s algorithms are rooted in published guidelines and refined based on existing literature and expert opinion of scientific principles.
“This freely available, validated, online tool revolutionizes the ability of physicians, nurse practitioners, and other providers to customize care for patients living with HIV,” says Shah. “Because HIV care is increasingly being provided by primary care physicians who are not specifically trained in caring for those with HIV, having a tool like this available can help to ensure that providers are aware of the latest treatment options available for their patients.”
In a world where mobile applications are making diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions easier, particularly for those living in remote areas, being able to access this information via a mobile application may serve as a game-changer for healthcare providers and their patients.
“The Campbell Foundation historically has funded research to discover better treatments for those living with HIV/AIDS. While this grant request was out of our traditional wheelhouse, our Peer Review Board believed this project has exciting implications not only for healthcare providers, but also for those living with HIV/AIDS,” said The Campbell Foundation’s Trustee Bill Venuti.
About The Campbell Foundation
The Campbell Foundation was established in 1995 by the late Richard Campbell Zahn as a private, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting clinical, laboratory-based research into the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. It focuses its funding on supporting alternative, nontraditional avenues of research. In its 26th year, the Campbell Foundation has given away more than $11.5 million, with about $1.2 million going to direct services.