College of Medicine

 Supported by two fellowships, second-year medical student Tim Walsh spent his summer in Chicago conducting research to increase awareness of the HIV-prevention pill PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). He presented his findings at the recent American Medical Association Research Symposium in Orlando.

Walsh, who said many medical providers remain unaware about PrEP and its effectiveness preventing HIV infection, finished first in the category for Public Health and Epidemiology. More than 800 members of the AMA Medical Student Section were in attendance.

“It’s exciting to be recognized in front of my peers,” Walsh said. “The best part is that it helps to raise awareness about an effective way to fight this disease.”

HIV infection is especially common in the community where he conducted his research.

“In that group in Chicago, one in every three black men who have sex with men is infected with HIV,” he said. “It’s really a devastating epidemic there, so this medication brings new hope.”

Working with the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, Walsh built his research around four-hour training sessions in which a team from the center teaches community leaders about HIV and PrEP. They then discuss how participants can inform others and recruit them for training. The training sessions help increase awareness about PrEP, encouraging individuals to ask their doctor about it, or to call the center’s physician-referral hotline.

Walsh examined how participants established goals. “That became an initial measure of investment in the project to help identify who needed more support,” he said.

PrEP is taken once a day to prevent HIV. To receive the drug, a person has to be considered high-risk for contracting HIV. For example, those having unprotected sex with other men, or who have had another bacterial STD, such as gonorrhea or chlamydia.

“PrEP’s benefits are really exciting,” Walsh said, “because it’s not only preventing HIV, but it gets men in to see a primary care provider every three months for testing. For young men, that’s not common. It helps them to become more reflective about their sexual behaviors.”

The AMA awarded Walsh $150 and a plaque for his entry, “Goal-setting in an intervention to improve Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) access among young black men who have sex with men (YBMSM).”

“But my focus remains to increase PrEP awareness,” he said.