Behavioral Medicine Service at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School
Dr. Safren worked at Massachusetts General for 18 years where he was the founding director of the current Behavioral Medicine Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and Behavioral and Social Sciences Core for the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). During his time there, he developed various collaborations with other faculty and mentees, with many of whom he maintains active collaborations.
Fenway Institute at Fenway Health
Dr. Safren continues to be an Affiliated Investigator at Fenway Health where he lead studies related to HIV prevention for men who have sex with men. He continues to collaborate on behavioral science research with Dr. Kenneth Mayer and other investigators at the Fenway Institute.
If you are interested in participating in this study, see if you preliminarily qualify here.
South Africa
HPAC is collaborating with a team at the University of Cape Town in South Africa (Dr. John Joska and Dr. Lena Andersen) and Massachusetts General Hospital (Dr. Conall O'Cleirigh and Dr. Jessica Magidson) in Boston to provide a nurse-delivered CBT intervention to HIV positive individuals who have failed first-line ART treatment and have depression. The therapy treatment aims to increase adherence to ART.
Read more about this project here.
India
Dr. Safren has had multiple collaborative projects in India for over 10 years. The current major project is a study in Mumbai (The Humsafar Trust - an NGO for sexual and gender minorities) and in Chennai (National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis and Sahodaran - an NGO for sexual and gender minorities; Drs. Beena Thomas and Soumya Swaminathan). The study involves an intervention in men who have sex with men (MSM) focused on building self-acceptance, social support, and HIV risk reduction skills. This work is in colleboration with investigators at Fenway Health (Dr. Kenneth Mayer), Massachusetts General Hospital (Drs. Conall O’Cleirigh, Ken Freedberg, C. Andres Bedoya) and the Institute for Community Health Promotion at Brown University (Drs. Matthew Mimiaga and Katie Biello).
Read more about this study here.
Yale University
HPAC is collaborating with Dr. John Pachankis from Yale University on Project ESTEEM to address sexual health and distress (anxiety, depression, and/or post-traumatic stress) among young gay and bisexual men. We will be recruiting from Miami and his study team will be recruiting from a location in New York City.
Read more about this project here.
Brown University
HPAC is collaborating with Dr. Matthew Mimiaga from Brown University on Project IMPACT, an intervention study for men who have sex with men that addresses stimulant use and sexual risk reduction. The study is recruiting participants in the Miami, Boston, and Providence areas. Read more about this study here.
