Earlier this week, Dr. Lauren Porter's proposal, Challenges in the Continuity of Care among Formerly Incarcerated Persons Living with HIV or HCV, was selected for a UMD Division of Research Tier 1 Award. Made possible by Designated Research Initiative Fund (DRIF) faculty incentive funds from the Vice President for Research and individual units, Tier 1 Awards promote "new research directions with the potential to attract funding, shape scholarship, impact society, and bring visibility to the UMD research enterprise."

Dr. Porter's research will address a pressing need to understand how spending time in prison or jail influences the continuity of care among those living with HIV or Hepatitis C (HCV). Within this overarching research question, the specific aims are (1) to delineate the challenges faced by patients who have been incarcerated, and (2) to identify the challenges faced by providers who care for formerly incarcerated patients.