Clinical trends and holistic health care needs of Asians living with HIV: An HIV treatment/access point of view

Anthony Mohamed is the Senior Specialist, Equity & Community Engagement, St. Michael’s Hospital, where he has been since 1995. On leave since 2015, he is an active leadership volunteer with many community initiatives including the Senior Pride Network, Myeloma Canada and a study on the relationship between HIV and Cancer. He has specialized skills in facilitation, mediation, policy development, project management, research, community partnerships and strategically applying an intersectional anti-oppression framework. His Masters of Environmental Studies (YorkU), specializing in “cross cultural community health promotion” emphasizes his commitment to equitable care for all. He also holds graduate level Certificates in Health Quality Improvement (Uof T), the Christian Scriptures (Harvard) and International Human Rights Law (UCLouvain).

Dr. Chum is the Canada Research Chair (tier 2) in Population Health Data Science at York University, and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Drawing on the disciplines of social epidemiology, geospatial analytics, and machine learning, Antony’s research investigates the social and environmental determinants of health and evaluate policies to build healthier cities and communities, especially for marginalized groups such as the homeless, low-income, racialized, and LGBTQ2S+ people. His research approach combines population health data sciences, methods in causal inference, and the application of rigorous social theories (e.g. intersectionality, social ecological theory, minority stress theory, etc.) to evaluate interventions/policies aimed at eliminating health disparities.

Meaningfully engaging Poz Asians to support the sharing of their experiences within a culturally-safe space

Justin Anantawan is a Toronto-based HIV activist, social worker, teacher, musician, and photographer of Chinese and Thai Descent. Justin frequently travels overseas for outreach work in the LGBTQ community and PLHA community. Most recently, he worked in The Gambia with Actionaid, creating a social media platform for sexual health information and working directly with MSMs to provide safe sex supplies and HIV testing. He also works regularly in Toronto with Asian Community AIDS Services. As a photographer, he contributes regularly to publications such as Where Love is Illegal, One Day in My World and National Geographic Yourshot.

Mind-body and immune functions in PLHIV

Devan Nambiar, MSc. has worked in the healthcare sector for over 25 years. He manages his own consultancy GHIS.CA and provides cultural and clinical training on the 2SLGBTQ+ population, HIV care and treatment, integrative health, and trauma-informed practice. In 2022, Devan launched Positivelove.ca, a free dating site for people living with HIV. He works full-time as the Manager of Capacity Building & Talent Development at Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance. Previously Devan was the Program Manager & Training Specialist at Rainbow Health Ontario on 2SLGBTQI+ health. Before that, he worked at CATIE for 12 years as HIV Treatment and Clinical Trials Educator. Devan has contributed to various publications and media on queer identities, HIV, MPX, and social justice.

Devan has been living with HIV for 34 years. He currently serves on five committees. They are the Community Advisory Committee at CIHR, CTN; Patient Advisory Committee at CADTH; Co-Chair of the CHESS study on COVID vaccine effectiveness for PLHIV; The Ontario Caregivers Organization; and Missing and Missed Implementation at Toronto Police Service. Devan received leadership awards at Ontario AIDS Network (2002) and the Canadian AIDS Society (2006).