Research & Policy
The populations most affected by HIV are systematically absent from the datasets used to design interventions for them. We are building the infrastructure to change that.
The Research Gap
The people most at risk of HIV are the least likely to appear in clinical data. Not because they do not exist, but because existing systems were not designed to reach them.
The counting problem
Epidemiological surveillance depends on people entering care systems. People who avoid those systems due to stigma or other barriers are systematically undercounted in every model used to allocate resources.
The intervention problem
Interventions designed from incomplete datasets inherit their blind spots. Programs optimized for people who already show up do not reach people who never will under current conditions.
The governance problem
Ethical frameworks for health data were built around patients in traditional care systems. Non-traditional care access creates a governance challenge that existing standards have not yet resolved.
The policy problem
Without signal from hard-to-reach groups, public health policy defaults to what is measurable rather than what is needed. The gap between the two is where transmission persists.
"The absence of data is not evidence of absence.
It is evidence of a broken access model."
Areas of Focus
We are actively seeking research partners in the following areas.
Epidemiology
Reaching the uncounted
Research on populations who are systematically absent from standard surveillance and what it takes to generate valid signal from them.
Behavioral Health
Barriers to care-seeking
Structural and psychosocial factors that determine whether high-risk individuals seek testing, and what changes that calculus.
Health Systems
Community-embedded care access
Outcomes research comparing community-embedded care access models with traditional clinical delivery for hard-to-reach populations.
Ethics & Governance
Consent in non-traditional care
Developing ethical and legal frameworks for patient consent, data governance, and rights outside traditional clinical settings.
Global Health Policy
Privacy-first care standards
Policy frameworks that embed privacy and dignity as baseline requirements rather than optional features of public health programs.
Implementation Science
Portable care infrastructure
What transfers and what does not when deploying care infrastructure across different legal, cultural, and health system contexts.
Standards Work
Unity Health Foundation works to establish and defend standards for privacy, dignity, and consent in care delivery. We are looking for research and policy partners who share that mandate.
Privacy as baseline: Standards that treat privacy and consent as default requirements, not optional features, for any public health program serving vulnerable populations.
Dignity in care design: Clinical and operational standards that center the experience and agency of the people being served, including those who face the highest barriers to traditional care.
Collaboration Model
Unity Health Foundation welcomes research collaboration at the design, deployment, and outcomes stages. We do not share operational architecture without an NDA, but we actively support independent research on the populations we serve. De-identified aggregate data is available to qualifying research partners under structured data sharing agreements.
If you are asking questions we are also asking, let us find out whether we should be asking them together.