Reminders and small rewards to help people with HIV take their HIV pills regularly
Official title: INcentives and ReMINDers to Improve Long-term Medication Adherence (INMIND)
Funded at Rand Corporation · NIH-11171473 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project uses daily reminders and small rewards to help people living with HIV take their antiretroviral pills regularly.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Rand Corporation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Santa Monica, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2024 |
| Project end | August 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $582,359 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH135751-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11171473 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are adults living with HIV who are prescribed antiretroviral therapy and want help forming a reliable pill-taking routine or who sometimes miss doses.
✕Less likely to help
People who are already consistently adherent to every dose or who cannot receive daily messages or accept small incentives (due to phone access, privacy concerns, or preference) are less likely to benefit.
What this research studies
If you join, you'll be asked to pick an existing daily habit (an "anchor")—like breakfast or brushing your teeth—to pair with taking your HIV pill so it becomes automatic. Some participants will get daily reminder messages for three months to help stick to their anchoring plan, while another group will receive the same messages plus small monthly prizes when they take pills around their chosen routine. The team will monitor medication-taking using self-reports, electronic measures, and clinic lab results such as viral load. This larger project builds on a successful pilot and aims to create lasting pill-taking routines for more people.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could help more people with HIV keep taking their ART on schedule and raise rates of viral suppression.
How similar studies have gone: A prior pilot (R34) from this team showed promising results using reminders and small incentives to form pill-taking routines, though larger confirmatory testing is still needed.
Where this research is happening
-
Rand Corporation
Santa Monica, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Linnemayr, Sebastian — Rand Corporation
- Study coordinator: Linnemayr, Sebastian
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.