Seek, Test, Treat and Retain Strategies Leveraging Mobile Health Technologies (Connect4Care), San Francisco, California, 2013-2015

This study is part of the Seek, Test, Treat and Retain (STTR) Collaboration Project that involved over twenty studies in the fields of HIV and drug abuse. All studies were independently developed, but were chosen for the collaboration because they focused on one or more steps of the HIV treatment cascade: Seek, Test, Treat and Retain. As part of STTR Collaboration Project, the studies were grouped into Criminal Justice-related studies and Vulnerable Population-related studies. The data collected by these studies included twelve common domains (e.g., Demographic characteristics, Mental Health) in each of which a shared questionnaire or instrument was taken up by the studies and adapted to fit the study.
Connect4Care (C4C) was a single site, randomized year-long study of Short Message Service (SMS) primary care appointment reminders vs. SMS primary care appointment reminders plus thrice-weekly supportive, informational, and motivational SMS messages. Eligible consenting patients were allocated 1:1 to the two arms within strata defined by HIV diagnosis within the past 12 months (i.e. "newly diagnosed") vs. earlier.