How did we get here? Five Defining Lessons from my HIV Research Journey (Not your Mother’s Usual Friday Morning Conference)

Dr. Carol Golin, MD, UNC Professor of Medicine and Health Behavior, former CFAR SBIS Core Director, has 30 years of experience conducting socio-behavioral research related to HIV treatment and prevention. She received her MD and internal medicine residency training at UNC and NC Memorial Hospital. She completed Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars and Primary Care fellowships in health services, epidemiology, and behavioral medicine research at UCLA. As a primary care physician, Dr. Golin began her research career conducting a study of patients with type 2 diabetes to understand how their participation in medical decision making affected their satisfaction with care and adherence to diabetes self-management. She then went on to apply these findings to help conduct two of the first studies of adherence to early combination antiretroviral therapy in the mid 1990’s. These studies documented nonadherence to HAART, factors affecting adherence, and effects of nonadherence on clinical and virologic outcomes. These studies led her, over the years, to develop and test behavioral interventions in a diverse range of clinical and community settings in the US and globally among individuals living with or vulnerable to HIV to help them access and adhere to medical care and to make informed health-related decisions.