The CHAVI Second Annual Clinical Investigators Meeting was held in Johannesburg, South Africa November 14-15, 2007. This meeting included members of the clinical study teams from Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, and the UK. Members of the Scientific Leadership Group, CHAVI Discovery Teams and the Duke Management Operations Team attended as did Dr. Stuart Shapiro, the NIH CHAVI Program Officer.

 

The meeting started with a lecture by CHAVI Director, Dr. Barton Haynes, summarizing the mission and scientific activity. He also presented a summary of the CHAVI perspective in the wake of the recently suspended Merck vaccine trial.  Other talks on the opening day were given by Dr. Andrew McMichael, Dr. David Goldstein, Dr. Cathy Seoighe, Dr. Mike Cohen and Dr. Chuck Hicks. The day two meeting focus was on clinical site ethical and operations issues with talks by Gift Kamanga, Christine Watera, Ryan Kerr, Vinodh Edward, Dr. John Bartlett and Dr. Philippa Easterbrook. Dr. Marcella Sarzotti-Kelsoe presented an overview of the CHAVI Laboratory Standard Operating Procedures highlighting the process for how these policies are approved and distributed to the sites.  The meeting closed with a discussion by Dr. Kelly Soderberg and Dr. Stuart Shapiro on a number of CHAVI administrative issues.

 

The Johannesburg meeting provided an excellent venue for the CHAVI team to network and discusses ways to improve our work. Most importantly, it provided an opportunity for us to meet the extended CHAVI family. Attendees also had the opportunity to tour RHRU affiliated clinical sites in the Johannesburg area as part of this visit and meet those who do the daily work of screening participants. This is always a valuable learning experience.

 

Going forward we hope to add ongoing video conferences with the clinical sites as another approach to encourage dialogue and communications. We will also be including a basic science notes section in our newsletter where we present a discovery team science overview throughout the year.

 

We truly thank the CHAVI team for your hard work and wish everyone the very best holiday season and a very happy and healthy 2008.