DBMI Announces Special Seminar Series: Toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Informatics, Health Care, and Society

The Columbia Department of Biomedical Informatics recently announced a new series of talks entitled “DBMI Special Seminar Series: Toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Informatics, Health Care, and Society.” These talks, which are open to the public, will focus on informatics research topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and be part of the weekly DBMI Seminar, a 1-credit course for DBMI students who can benefit from hearing new methods of research from speakers from both academia and industry. 

The first session of this series will be held March 12 at 1 pm (please note the newly rescheduled date; the seminar is no longer Feb. 15). Megan Threats, PhD, MSLIS, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University will present her research on “toward health justice in informatics: a community-based, intersectional approach to HIV informatics intervention development.”

The abstract is available below, and the Zoom link for the session is available here.

Future presentations that will be part of this new series will be posted to our Seminar page and shared on the DBMI social platforms.

Title: Toward health justice in informatics: a community-based, intersectional approach to HIV informatics intervention development 
 
Abstract: June 2021 will mark 40 years since the first cases of what would later become known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported in the United States. Despite groundbreaking biomedical advancements in HIV prevention and treatment, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to disproportionately affect sexual and gender minority communities of color. In this talk, I will discuss the development of an HIV informatics intervention aimed at reducing inequities in linkage and retention in HIV prevention and care among sexual minority Black men in the South. I will present strategies for leveraging informatics to achieve health justice in the fight to end AIDS.