# Rural Comorbidity and HIV consequences of Opioid use Research and Treatment Initiative (Rural cohort)

> **NIH NIH U24** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $754,049

## Abstract

The purpose of the Rural Comorbidity and HIV consequences of Opioid use Research and Treatment Initiative
(Rural Cohort) Coordinating Center (CC) is to coordinate and support a cohort collaboration of NIH funded
studies as they conduct assessments and implement evidence-based practices to address opioid use, HIV and
related comorbidities in their rural communities. The overarching purpose is to improve the overall health and
outcomes of this vulnerable population. There is also an opportunity to increase the use of HIV prevention and
care services and address opioid use in ways that are likely to reduce HIV incidence and prevent new HIV
epidemics among substance users. Achieving these objectives will require a CC experienced in data
harmonization, multi-site coordination, and research on substance use interventions and impact among
substance using populations with and without HIV to comprehensively integrate clinical research data from
multiple studies. The resulting large resource of comprehensively integrated clinical data from multiple studies
will give researchers the potential to address important scientific and public health questions related to
substance use and HIV prevention and outcomes among persons who inject drugs (PWID) that would not be
possible with smaller studies. As the Rural Cohort CC, we will work with sites to allow complex, careful, and
complete analysis of outcomes and results over many diverse populations using harmonized data from across
sites. This will improve the statistical power to identify areas or sub-groups for research focus and to
understand what interventions are proving successful in the broader context of the whole population of rural
PWID (as opposed to in the target population of a single member site). Careful data harmonization will be
paired with intuitive delivery tools to ensure that this high-quality data is made widely available to the member
sites. The Rural Cohort CC team brings vast experience with data linkage and harmonization, methods
development, statistical support for observational research, platform and tool development such as for the
efficient and accurate collection of patient reported outcomes and outcomes adjudication, providing overall
coordination for large collaborations of cohorts and studies, and a strong background in clinical epidemiology
of HIV and substance use. This will allow us to assist the studies to improve and enhance data collection
where appropriate, merge and harmonize data when feasible, and work together more closely to address the
key questions on substance use, HIV, and outcomes in rural settings that cannot be addressed by individual
studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10118158
- **Project number:** 5U24DA048538-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Heidi M. Crane
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $754,049
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10118158

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10118158, Rural Comorbidity and HIV consequences of Opioid use Research and Treatment Initiative (Rural cohort) (5U24DA048538-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10118158. Licensed CC0.

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