
The UTHealth Houston Institute for Implementation Science and the Texas Developmental Center for AIDS Research (Texas D-CFAR), a collaboration between Baylor College of Medicine, UTHealth Houston and Texas Biomedical Research Institute, received funding from the National Institutes of Health to establish the new Texas Implementation Science Hub to end HIV (Texas IS Hub).
The Texas IS Hub is a component of the Texas D-CFAR. The Texas D-CFAR focuses its research on the theme “Ending HIV and optimizing HIV health in Texas.” The Texas IS Hub is now one of nine national Implementation Science Consultation Hubs working with the HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative supporting NIH-funded Ending HIV Epidemic supplement projects across the country.
IS Hub Investigators
Principal Investigators
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 Chris Markham, PhD UTHealth Houston |
.png?language_id=1) Bijal Balasubramanian, MBBS, PhD UTHealth Houston |
Co-Investigators
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 Bich N Dang, MD Baylor College of Medicine |
 María E Fernández, PhD UTHealth Houston |
 Kayo Fujimoto, PhD UTHealth Houston |
 Sheryl McCurdy, PhD UTHealth Houston |
 Shital Patel, MD, MSc Baylor College of Medicine
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 Diane Santa Maria, DrPH, RN, PHNA-BC, FSAHM, FAAN UTHealth Houston |
 Irene Tami-Maury, DMD, MSc, DrPH UTHealth Houston |
 J. Michael Wilkerson, PhD UTHealth Houston
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 Serena Rodriguez, PhD UTHealth Houston |
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Highlights
Talk by Dr. Julia Moore
We hosted a talk by Dr. Julia Moore, Executive Director of The Center for Implementation, on the foundations of implementation science and how it can be used in practice to support the implementation of evidence-based initiatives.
A recording of the talk is available online.
Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI) Presentation
We gave a presentation on some of our upcoming activities and general aims with the HIV Implementation Science Coordination Initiative (ISCI). You can read more in the ISCI's blog post about the presentation.
Capstone Event
We were so excited to recently host our 2023 capstone event where we gathered our EHE awardees and engaged in dynamic discussions about each implementation project! We were honored to hear from three distinct projects which included:
- Drs. Graham and Jack from the University of Washington presented on their project about Mapping a Behavioral Economics-Informed Intervention to promote linkage to HIV prevention and behavioral health services for people releasing from jails and prisons in Washington state.
- Dr. Robert Deiss from the University of California San Diego presented his project on a collaborative approach for navigating, developing strategies, and uplifting the health of persons with substance use disorders.
- Dr. Alison Buttenheim presented her project on evaluating the B-OK bottles as an implementation strategy to improve treatment adherence counseling and retention support by medical case managers.
We talked about some of the barriers experienced when conducting implementation research and were able to learn from colleagues around the nation. We look forward to following these impactful projects and witnessing their efforts in ending the HIV epidemic.

Our Work
We are happy to announce that we have been selected to support six EHE projects across the nation with a focus on pharmacy-delivered research.
We are continuously working with colleagues in our local D-CFAR and have supported multiple investigators with their implementation science needs.