GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits

Exploring the relationship between social class and sport event volunteering

There is a dearth of research that examines the relationship between sport event volunteering and social class. This article contributes to this gap by exploring the social class of volunteers involved in the running of a series of major international field hockey events held between 2015 and 2017 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The authors draw upon longitudinal research that utilises demographic information and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 46 event volunteers. To gauge the social composition of this volunteer pool, the authors first discern the social class categories of the study’s participants. Following analysis of the qualitative data, the authors then examine how the interplay between social class and Pierre Bourdieu’s principal forms of cultural, economic and social capital shapes the volunteer workforce, and how they might operate to inhibit under-represented groups from volunteering. In parallel to the class analysis of the participants, the authors provide novel insights into the organisational amassing of an event volunteer workforce. The article concludes by considering the implications of the nexus between social class, capitals, and inclusion within event volunteering and its management

HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV coinfection, and outcomes following highly active antiretroviral therapy

Objectives To assess the prevalence and risk factors for HBV and HCV coinfection in the Australia HIV Observational Database (AHOD), and examine outcomes of HIV disease following initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Methods Analyses were based on 2086 participants recruited to AHOD by September 2002. Of these, 1605 (77%) had been tested for HBV surface antigen, 1704 (82%) for anti-HCV antibody and 1453 (70%) for both. Demographic and clinical predictors of HBV and HCV coinfection were examined. The impact of HBV and HCV coinfection on HIV disease progression was assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazard model of time to AIDS events and death. Results Among those tested, prevalence of HBV surface antigen and HCV antibody were 6.3% and 13.1%, respectively (4.8% and 10.7%, respectively, among the entire cohort). In multivariate analyses, the only independent risk factor for HIV/HBV coinfection was coinfection with HCV. Independent risk factors for HIV/HCV coinfection were HIV exposure category (with people who reported injecting drug use [MSM & IDU, IDU only] or receipt of blood or blood products at markedly increased risk) and HBV coinfection. HIV disease outcomes following first initiation of a HAART regimen were similar for HIV/HBV and HIV/HCV coinfected patients compared with HIV-only patients in terms of AIDS-free survival and detectable HIV virus during the first 12 months. However, patients coinfected with HIV/HCV appeared to have a poorer response to HAART in terms of CD4 count changes, with a CD4 count increase of 32 cells/μL (95% CI 1–67) less than HIV-only patients. Conclusions Coinfection with HBV or HCV is relatively common among HIV-infected participants in AHOD. HIV disease outcomes following HAART do not appear to be adversely affected by HBV/HCV coinfection, except for slightly poorer CD4 count responses in HIV/HCV coinfected patients