Needs Assessment Committee
Finn Schubert and Marcy Thompson, Chairs
November 9th, 2021, 1:00PM -3:00PM
Zoom Video Call: https://zoom.us/j/4708943670
Members Present: Fay Barrett, Randall Bruce, Billy Fields, Graham Harriman (Gov’t Co-chair), Amanda Lugg, Finn Schubert (Co-chair), John Schoepp, Marcy Thompson (Co-chair), Leo Ruiz, Maiko Yomogida, Angela Aidala, Erin Harned, Freddy Molano, Guadalupe Plummer Dominguez, Karen McKinnon, Norine Di Giulio, Erin Harned, Reginald Brown, Jennifer Irwin, Claire Simon, David Martin
DOHMH, PHS, NYS and Other Staff: Cristina Rodriguez-Hart, Bryan Meisel, Johnell Lawrence, Kimbirly Mack, Noelisa Montero, Jose Colon-Berdecia, Roland Torres
Welcome/Introductions/Moment of Silence/Public Comment/
Review of the Meeting Packet/Review of the Minutes:
Jennifer Irwin led the committee in a moment of silence. There was no public comment. No corrections to the October minutes. Cristina briefly covered the agenda and the new structure of breaking out into workgroups during NAC meetings.
Understanding data for HIV advocates
Finn delivered a presentation on understanding data (that was attached to the calendar invite) and questions to ask to help NAC process data:
- Types of data- quantitative and qualitative.
- Questions to ask about data such as where did these data come from? Who is included? What was collected? How were they analyzed? What conclusions can we draw?
- Tips for looking at quantitative data using an example slide from HIV surveillance.
- A brief overview of statistical significance using an example of flipping a coin.
- The presentation was followed by a discussion among members. Angela brought up that it’s important to consider what proportion actually participate in a study and the effect size. Fay expressed concern about who is missing from our data and how do we reach those people. A couple people expressed concern about the time lag in reporting data out. A couple people talked about data limitations such as not reporting on country of birth or on transgender status. Cristina highlighted that HIV surveillance reports are created each year focused on people born outside the US and for transgender persons, and where to find them.
Needs assessment (NA) workgroups
NAC split up into 4 simultaneous breakout rooms, each discussing a different component of the HRSA-required NA. Noelisa facilitated the epi profile workgroup, Graham the resource inventory workgroup, Johnell the provider capacity workgroup, and CHAIN staff (Angela, Maiko, and Erin) the service needs and gaps workgroup. After about 40 minutes the workgroups came back together to report out to the full NAC an overview of their discussion. The epi profile workgroup said they went over new HIV diagnoses and other HIV surveillance outcomes by various populations and had a robust discussion. The resource inventory workgroup went through a powerpoint on data resources available to them and talked about how to make the data digestible to them. They would like a template for how to organize their work and will need until March to present to the full NAC. They’ll start completing their workplan at the next NAC. The provider capacity workgroup started to discuss a possible survey to Ryan White providers that would include issues like training needs (e.g., comfort working with transgender persons). The AETC is also working on a needs assessment and they will coordinate with NAC to be as complimentary as possible. The service needs and gaps workgroup discussed the fact that CHAIN has many available reports on the Council website, many of which have key findings at the beginning, but they may differ in terms of how service need is defined. CHAIN staff will develop some at-a-glance documents to synthesize across several of their reports on needs including their recent COVID-19 report, and will present on service needs definitions in December.
Cristina said that she will send out important data links to NAC after the call.
