Colleagues from BSMS and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust were awarded the Innovation Award at the BMJ Awards on 10 May.
The innovative digital vending machine, which was launched in the Brighton Sauna in June 2017, makes testing accessible for people who are at high-risk of HIV but don’t attend traditional clinical settings to collect free HIV self-tests. In the first three weeks of the machine being launched, more tests were collected from the machine than were performed in the sauna by the Terrence Higgins Trust in the preceding three months.
Dr Jaime Vera, Senior Lecturer in HIV at BSMS and HIV clinician, who helped develop the machine, said: "This project was a true collaboration between community partners, designers, academics and clinicians in Brighton that worked together to develop an innovative intervention to make HIV testing more accessible to the public.
"We are very grateful to the BMJ for the award which has given the team great motivation to continue working together towards reaching the goal of Zero HIV infections and HIV stigma in Brighton and Hove by 2025."