The OPENS Trial is a research partnership between the University of California, San Francisco and the Florida Department of Health in Duval County. The study aims to explore ways to offer cisgender women comprehensive HIV prevention information, with focus on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), in family planning settings.
The majority of new HIV diagnoses in the United States occur in the southern US, and Black women are disproportionately affected due to intersecting social and structural oppressions. Black women have one of the highest unmet needs for HIV prevention in the US, and PrEP use among this population in the southern US is strikingly low. Interventions are needed in clinical settings where women are already seeking care that support awareness of HIV vulnerability, improve knowledge of HIV prevention options, facilitate informed decision-making, and motivate individuals to seek out and use HIV prevention strategies that meet their needs, including PrEP, if desired.
An NIH-funded trial is currently underway to evaluate the impact of a patient-level patient-level intervention (an HIV prevention decision support tool that offers universal education), a provider-level intervention (a training on shared decision-making), and a clinic-level intervention (a training on trauma-informed care). Results of this study will provide information on how to address barriers to PrEP uptake in women, as well as preliminary data on strategies to improve access to HIV prevention services. In addition to the trial, the research team is conducting a supplemental project to find out whether it is possible to identify cisgender women who are at risk of getting HIV and understand whether this information may be valuable to them.