Over the past 8 years, FWB has established numerous collaborations with service organizations that provide services to the target population, which include: Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), Parole and Probation, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) which is the medical provider for all State prisons, and other networks of affiliated agencies. In August of 2009, FWB Program Director enhanced our partnership with UTMB in an effort to increase our capacity to provide services to HIV+ offenders approaching release that are located in facilities that are too far for project staff to travel. FWB Program Director discussed with Dr. Paar, Director of Clinical Virology at UTMB, the possibility of establishing video conferencing capabilities for AIDS Arms, UTMB and TDCJ. Our goal is to meet and provide pre-release planning for those persons returning to the Dallas Eligible Metropolitan Service Area (EMSA). Through that collaboration, the process began to get AIDS Arms video conferencing capabilities.

Starting February 5, 2010, AIDS Arms began offering full video conferencing capabilities with UTMB and TDCJ. The first three clients were interviewed via video conferencing as a part of the launch. Dr. David Paar was present to observe the process. With the acquisition of video conferencing, AIDS Arms has increased access to correctional facilities from 32 units to 116 units.

AIDS Arms’ Peabody Health Center, Clinical Research Site, Dallas, TX in conjunction with Northwestern University Clinical Trials Unit in Chicago, is honored to be named as one of the 140 U. S. and international sites to be selected as a HIV/AIDS Clinical Research Site (CRS) by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports the world’s largest HIV/AIDS clinical research effort. It recently restructured its clinical research organization into six networks, the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) being one of those six. Peabody Health Center has been named as a new Texas member of the ACTG. This project will involve multiple short and long term research projects in the fight against HIV/AIDS over a seven year period.