Friday ID Conference: “Willingness to Accept Conditional Economic Incentives to Reduce HIV Risks among men who have sex with men in Mexico City”

Omar Galárraga, PhD, is assistant professor at Brown University (Department of Health Services, Policy & Practice) and PI for an International Scientist Development Award (IRSDA, K-01) from the National Institutes of Health on “Conditional Economic Incentives to Prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections in Mexico.” He was also recently awarded an R-21 NIH grant for a pilot randomized trial using conditional economic incentives to reduce HIV risks among men who have sex with men at high risk of infection, including male sex workers in Mexico City.

He has been a consultant for the World Bank, UNAIDS, World Health Organization, World Food Program, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation working with large datasets on modeling, costing and quantitative evaluation of health interventions as well as projections of demand and future funding for global HIV prevention and treatment programs.

Dr. Galárraga is a faculty affiliate at Brown University’s International Health Institute, and at the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC). During 2006-2010 he was Assistant Professor and Researcher in Health Economics at the Mexican School of Public Health / National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and at the Institute of Business and Economic Research (IBER) at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his PhD in Health Economics at the Johns Hopkins University (Bloomberg School of Public Health) in 2006.

His research appears in health economics and public health journals. His teaching includes topics on HIV disparities, large dataset statistical analysis, and global health economics.

About Friday ID Conference

IGHID co-sponsors a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines. The conference takes place every Friday (September through June) from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, please contact the conference coordinator, Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.