Junghwan Kim joins $10 million NIH project to improve access to HIV and substance use care The Virginia Tech geographer will help develop geospatial data-driven tools to identify service gaps and guide mobile care for people affected by HIV and substance use. Virginia Tech geographer Junghwan Kim will contribute geospatial and transportation expertise to a five-year, $10.2 million National Institutes of Health project aimed at improving access to HIV prevention, treatment, and substance use disorder services in Connecticut. Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and the director of Smart Cities for Good, will serve as a site principal investigator for the project. Virginia Tech will receive about $450,000 through a subaward from Yale University. Funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, the project is called GEO IMPACT, short for “Geo-Targeted Implementation of a Novel Mobile Pharmacy and Clinic Healthcare Delivery Model with Community Health Workers for Prevention, Care, and Treatment of HIV and Substance Use.” The initiative is led by researchers at Yale University in collaboration with Virginia Tech, Stanford University, Wake Forest University, Connecticut agencies, and community partners. “This project is especially important for me because it addresses a critical public health crisis in the United States,” Kim said. “At the same time, it shows how geography and geospatial analysis can be applied in the public health domain. It’s multidisciplinary work, and that’s what matters to me.” The research team will develop statistical and geographic models to determine where people living with or at risk for HIV and substance use disorders have the greatest need for services. Researchers will also identify gaps in access to pharmacies, opioid treatment programs, HIV services, and other health care resources. The resulting information will help the team decide where to deploy mobile pharmacy and clinic services. The mobile