People under the age of 30 account for most of the HIV cases in the United States. But a new program at UNC is designed to try and change that.

The National Institutes of Health granted the university and colleagues at Emory $18 million over the next five years to develop the UNC/Emory Center for Innovative Technology, or iTech.

“Our center is really focused on ‘How do we take technology that youths use every day and allow that technology to work for them in hopes of either preventing HIV infection or helping them manage their HIV infection if they’re already infected,’” said Lisa Hightow-Weidman an associate professor at UNC in the Infectious Diseases Division.

She says the program will use technology to design interventions addressing HIV among youth all over the country.

“In the work we’ve done, we’ve seen high levels of acceptability, of satisfaction, with the interventions, and starting to see some positive behavior changes as a result.”

She says the program enrolls participants online and gives them the access and anonymity that the lack thereof may have kept them from educating themselves about HIV.

“So a lot of our projects don’t use…participants’ names, but allow them to have avatars or other names that they select, but still allow them to engage with other users who are experiencing the same things they are.”

In the most recent intervention, Hightow-Weidman says the program enrolled 500 young African-American men, and after 12 months, retention was at almost 75 percent.

She says, although the program is working well and is successful so far, there is only so much that can be done right now without physically making an appointment with a doctor, physician or specialist.

“Technology can’t address every aspect of this epidemic, but if it can bridge some of the things that keep youth from engaging in care, and from seeking out these services, then we’ve sort of accomplished part of what we’re looking to do.”

iTech is based at UNC but has seven satellite campuses across the country.

iTech was one of three centers selected in the country to develop these interventions. There are currently six studies planned with the fund, but doctors and professors working on the program hope to add more.

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