Northwestern University has just issued a statement regarding the MACS at Howard Brown. Dated July 30, 2012, it confirms what Windy City Times reported in a previous report on the 25th of July.
It states that "Northwestern University cancelled the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) subcontract with the Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) effective July 2, 2012." The statement also confirms what WCT speculated may have been a turning point in the process leading to this decision: "The decision was made in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after a breach of patient confidentiality by an employee of HBHC. An independent ethics panel, called an institutional review board, suspended the study at HBHC both to protect the MACS participants and to preserve the integrity of the research."
The press release categorically states that, "Northwestern University formally requested that HBHC return all research records relating to the study and contact information for the active participants. However, to date Howard Brown Health Center has not provided the research records to Northwestern in accordance with established federal guidelines for contract cancellation. As a result, the government-funded AIDS research is being jeopardized."
This confirms WCT's reporting that even patients who have specifically asked for their records to be transferred, such as Harlan Fleming who previously spoke to the paper, may not have not had their requests complied with.
The exact ways in which this research is being "jeopardized," is still to be confirmed. In a preliminary note to Windy City Times, which has asked for more details about that and other matters, Alan Cubbage, spokesperson for the university, wrote that they "[w]ould prefer not to go into details."
Northwestern University is calling for MACS participants from Howard Brown to contact NU MACS staff by calling (312) 908-MACS (6227). According to the statement, study visits will take place at Northwestern University in Chicago or the Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center.
Windy City Times is continuing to follow this story. See earlier coverage, Howard Brown may lose MACS by Yasmin Nair, Windy City Times, 2012-07-25 at www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Howard-Brown-may-lose-MACS/38776.html
