# Project ACCESS: Advancing  Access to HIV/HCV Testing Through Transformation in Syringe Services Programs: A Cluster Randomized Trial

> **NIH DA R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2026 · $653,862

## Abstract

The National HIV Strategy encourages expansion of HIV testing to community health settings, emphasizing it is critical that all people, particularly groups like people who inject drugs (PWID), know their HIV status for rapid initiation of HIV treatment or potential initiation of PrEP. Despite recommendations from CDC that PWID be tested for HIV every year, only 55% report receiving an HIV test in the previous 12 months. Injection drug use (IDU) continues to be a leading cause of HIV infection with 11% of new HIV infections and 66% acute HCV infections attributable to IDU in 2020. In recent years, there has been a national increase in IDU-associated HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) outbreaks, driven primarily by the ongoing overdose crisis, creating an obstacle to meeting Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) goals. While the majority (87%) of syringe services programs (SSPs) offer HIV testing, it is estimated that participant-level uptake is only 17%, highlighting a significant practice gap regarding how and under what conditions SSPs are offering HIV testing. SSPs face a myriad of organizational-level barriers to implementing HIV testing, such as lack of financial resources, lack of training on best practices, staff turnover, and organizational capacity/policies. Our team developed, refined, and pilot tested the ACCESS implementation strategy—a multicomponent, multi-phase, organizational-level intervention focused on improving the SSP organizational capacity to implement HIV/HCV testing best practices through funding and practice facilitation. We propose a hybrid Type II effectiveness-implementation cluster randomized trial of 32 SSPs. We will create a cross-sector implementation team to facilitate the ACCESS implementation strategy in EHE jurisdictions and locales at risk for HIV outbreaks. Selected SSPs will then be randomized to receive the ACCESS strategy (i.e., funding and peer external facilitation), or an information control condition that contains a link to the CDC Compen

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11323584
- **Project number:** 5R01DA060462-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Tyler Scott Bartholomew; Hansel Emory Tookes
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** DA
- **Fiscal year:** 2026
- **Award amount:** $653,862
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2024-07-01T00:00:00 → 2029-04-30T00:00:00

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11323584

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11323584, Project ACCESS: Advancing  Access to HIV/HCV Testing Through Transformation in Syringe Services Programs: A Cluster Randomized Trial (5R01DA060462-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-05 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11323584. Licensed CC0.

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