Wednesday, January 22, 2025
1/22/2025
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences Division of STD Prevention and HIV/AIDS Surveillance is applying for participation in the STI Surveillance Network to support state and national efforts to expand and improve STI surveillance data to develop a stronger, more accurate knowledge base of STI trends and social determinants. This knowledge will guide Massachusetts in developing tailored, evidence-based public health prevention activities and disease management interventions. Massachusetts can provide rich datasets to monitor trends in care-seeking behavior (i.e. STI screening and STI/HIV prevention) among individuals seeking care at a large STI clinic; collect and evaluate detailed patient and provider characteristics for gonorrhea and adult syphilis cases; develop and publish a visual STI data dashboard; and assist CDC and other jurisdictions with additional surveillance priorities such as individuals with repeated STIs over time. Massachusetts will meet these goals, thanks to our robust informatics infrastructure, experienced and flexible partner services and surveillance teams, strong prior publication track record, and deep internal and external collaborations. Planned Year One outcomes include: (1) datasets containing clinical records of patients presenting for care at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Sexual Health Clinic (SHC) and relevant metadata relating to clinic policies; (2) dataset documenting patient surveys for at least one collection period at MGH SHC; (3) datasets containing HIV registry match with all required SSuN variables for all patients seeking care at MGH SHC; (4) datasets containing enhanced gonorrhea and syphilis surveillance which is supplemented by a minimum of 215 completed provider and patient investigations (2% of all reported 2022 gonorrhea and early syphilis cases), per year; (5) datasets containing all reported gonorrhea and adult syphilis cases matched to the HIV registry with all required SSuN variables; (6) the implementation of an HIV-PrEP and doxyPEP patient monitoring data dashboard; and (7) the implementation of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis data dashboard on the mass.gov website. Planned five year outcomes will include: (1) improved monitoring of patient characteristics for those at STI/HIV risk and risk of repeat infections, (2) improved monitoring of patient-level eligibility for and uptake of STI/HIV preventive services, (3) improved timeliness, data completeness, and data quality, (4) timely dissemination of findings informing STI/HIV control and prevention policy, (5) annual data quality reporting, (6) dissemination of surveillance data products to provider, health department, and community stakeholders, and (7) dissemination of findings in STI/HIV-related journals and publications.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).