# Enabling cloud deployment of a network data capture tool to improve Partner Services

> **NIH NIH R34** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $201,951

## Abstract

Project Summary
Across HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the real-time understanding of transmission networks of
recently infected individuals is vital for the rapid diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of new cases, and in
providing insight into how the disease is transmitted, which populations are at highest risk, and who should be
targeted for intervention. One of the most effective and widely implemented methods for understanding and
intervening upon transmission networks is Partner Services - or interviewing a person newly diagnosed with
HIV in order to identify any potentially exposed partners and notify, test, and, if necessary, connect those
partners to care. However, the implementation of Partner Services by public health departments is often a
challenge. In response to similar difficulties in the collection of social network research data, our team built a
free open-source and NIH-funded software suite for researchers, called Network Canvas. Within the parent
R34 award, we are conducting the formative work to understand the utility of Network Canvas as a free and
open-source software tool that might simplify and modernize disease investigation for public health officials
conducting Partner Services. Specifically, we characterized the needs of public health departments conducting
Partner Services and developed a detailed technical specification of the software reconfiguration necessary to
meet these needs. Finally, we are developing and implementing a pilot of the software within a Partner
Services Program to demonstrate feasibility, acceptability, and gather preliminary evidence of efficacy. Our
work within the R34 has demonstrated that Network Canvas's reliance on in-person interviewing limits its
utility. For example, while public health's use of telephone interviews for Partner Services has been growing
steadily for years, the COVID-19 pandemic hastened the complete transition to remote interviews. Accordingly,
the goal of this supplement is to support the development of a remote administration option, thereby
substantially increasing the usability, reach, and impact of this software for public health, drug use, and
infectious disease research. In the short term, this supplement will produce a seamless end-to-end solution for
public health, drug use, and infectious disease researchers to develop a network interview protocol, deploy an
interview via URL link, invite participants and clients to complete this interview, and easily download interview
data to their local data infrastructure. In the long term, the implications of achieving our aim would be
substantially expanding the ability of researchers and public health officials to capture real-time information on
disease transmission networks (e.g., contact tracing of sexual and drug use partners). The Network Canvas
Software Suite and the parent R34 are an exceptional fit for an administrative supplement in response to NOT-
OD-22-068. Our substantial and growing user b...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10609285
- **Project number:** 3R34DA052216-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Michelle Birkett
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $201,951
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10609285

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10609285, Enabling cloud deployment of a network data capture tool to improve Partner Services (3R34DA052216-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10609285. Licensed CC0.

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