Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

In Canada, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) are 71 times more likely to acquire HIV. They are also more likely to acquire other sexually transmitted infections, experience poor mental health, and report using psychoactive drugs. Given these disparities, there is a pressing need to facilitate the communication of research evidence that can inform and improve health services, systems, and policies, and community-based interventions among gbMSM. This proposal aims to develop, test, and launch an interactive data visualization dashboard and data analysis request portal that will allow knowledge users to explore and analyze two existing data sources: the Momentum Health Study (a population-based cohort study of 774 gbMSM that ran from 2012 to 2018) and the Sex Now Survey (a periodic cross-sectional behavioural surveillance survey of 14,432 gbMSM with 11 administrations between 2002 and 2018). Leveraging these data sources, our proposed dashboard will modernize how research evidence is communicated to the knowledge users who need it most. To develop this tool, we will use leading business analytics and web-design software to design and publish an open-access portal that will allow users to examine longitudinal, geocoded, and cross-tabulated data while maintaining participant privacy through the use of aggregated reporting and administrative censoring. To test this tool, we will pilot our dashboard and conduct community consultations through a multi-sectoral provincial working group comprised of BC researchers, community leaders, and health providers. Finally, to launch our tool, we will host a product release and demonstration at the 2019 Gay Men's Health Summit in Metro Vancouver. In summary, this proposal aims to give knowledge users the freedom and flexibility to analyze high quality data sources and the opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange with the leading gbMSM researchers in the province.