About

Dr. John A. Schneider is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago, with a focus on network epidemiology and infectious diseases. He serves as the Director of the University of Chicago Center for HIV Elimination and his NIH and CDC funded research concentrates on social network interventions aimed at disease elimination in vulnerable populations within resource-restricted settings. His work involves implementing network interventions and computational modeling to prevent new HIV transmission events, particularly among young Black men who have sex with men and transgender women. Dr. Schneider specializes in HIV prevention and has extensive clinical experience in providing high-quality care in resource-limited environments, including his current clinic at Howard Brown Health on Chicago's South Side and previous work in Southern India. His academic background includes an MD and MPH from Tufts University, a BA from the University of California Berkeley, and training at the University of Chicago and Tufts University. He has received multiple awards for his leadership and contributions to diversity and research excellence.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Sociology
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Nursing
• Environmental health
• Family medicine
• Gender studies
• Demography
• Social psychology
• Public relations
• Criminology
• Law
• Economics
• Pharmacology
• Physical therapy
• Virology
• Geography
• Economic growth
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Comparison of machine learning models to predict loss to follow-up among people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

  JAMIA Open · 2025-07-03 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Objective: To compare different machine learning models of loss to follow-up among people with HIV (PWH). Materials and Methods: Using electronic medical record (EMR) data from 7340 PWH at a federally qualified health center, we developed machine learning models to predict loss to follow-up in HIV care. Unstructured text from clinical notes was analyzed using Bag of Words and Word Embedding natural language processing (NLP) approaches. Results: A random forest model utilizing structured data and Bag of Words (area under the receiver operating curve [AUC], 0.787; 95% CI, 0.776-0.798) outperformed a random forest model utilizing structured data alone (AUC, 0.753; 95% CI, 0.741-0.765), as well as a random forest model using Bag of Words alone (AUC, 0.624; 95% CI, 0.610-0.638). Discussion: A model using both structured EMR data as well as NLP of unstructured clinical notes had higher performance than models using structured EMR data alone or NLP alone in predicting loss to follow-up from HIV care.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Discrimination and Sleep Health Among Transgender Women of Color in New York City: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations From the TURNNT Cohort Study

  American Journal of Public Health · 2025-08-07 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objectives. To determine whether discrimination is associated with sleep health among transgender women of color. Methods. We included 269 participants from the Trying to Understand Relationships, Networks, and Neighborhoods Among Transgender Women of Color (TURNNT) Cohort Study in New York City in a cross-sectional analysis and 179 in a longitudinal analysis of the association between discrimination and sleep duration, quality, and latency. Results. Median sleep duration was 6 hours per night, with 65% of participants reporting poor sleep in the past month. Nearly two thirds experienced moderate or high levels of discrimination. Cross sectionally, high discrimination was associated with a 14% greater risk of poor sleep quality relative to low discrimination (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.14). Longitudinally, high discrimination was associated with a 15% higher risk of poor sleep (PR = 1.15) and an average of 43 minutes less per night. Conclusions. Transgender women of color generally do not receive an adequate amount of sleep, and that sleep is often of poor quality. Those who experience higher rates of discrimination are particularly vulnerable to poor sleep health. Public Health Implications. Effort should be focused on reducing antitransgender discrimination and developing interventions to mitigate the negative impact of discrimination on sleep health among transgender populations. ( Am J Public Health. 2025;115(10):1652–1661. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308208 )

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Automated Neural Dosing for Fast-Acting Subperception Therapy: Sustained Spinal Cord Stimulation Outcomes from a Multicenter Study

  Pain and Therapy · 2025-07-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Therapy habituation is a barrier to sustained success with spinal cord stimulation (SCS). Fast-acting subperception therapy (FAST) is a low-frequency, subperception waveform that can achieve rapid wash-in pain relief via the surround inhibition mechanism. FAST-Autodose is an automated neural dosing schedule designed to provide effective pain relief while potentially reducing habituation and maintaining therapy within an efficient therapeutic window-thus eliminating the need for manual patient adjustments. We assessed the efficacy of FAST-Autodose and provide preliminary long-term outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of consecutive patients from a multicenter, observational study in the USA who had received SCS and used FAST-Autodose to manage their chronic pain of the low back and/or lower limbs. The numerical rating scale (NRS) evaluated the overall pain intensity until the last follow-up postimplantation. RESULTS: Data were collected from 73 patients who had used FAST-Autodose for 11.9 ± 6.8 months on average. At the last follow-up visit (average 1.8 ± 1.5 years after implantation), the NRS score for overall pain decreased by 5.1 ± 2.8 points, to a mean of 2.1 ± 2.0 (p < 0.0001) and 69% of patients reported minimal pain (NRS ≤ 2/10). In total, 23 patients had been implanted for more than 3.5 years and had used FAST-Autodose for a mean of 17.7 ± 5.9 months; in these patients, the mean NRS pain score decreased by 6.1 ± 2.0 points to 1.6 ± 1.2 points (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: FAST-Autodose is a novel, automated, subperception paradigm for SCS. In our study, this program delivered significant and sustained pain relief in patients with chronic low back and/or leg pain who had been implanted with SCS for up to 3.6 years. These preliminary results constitute a promising rationale for larger, prospective studies on the long-term efficacy of FAST-Autodose. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registered at clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT01550575).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Association Between Criminal Legal System Involvement and HIV Prevention and Care Among Transgender Women of Color: The TURNNT Cohort Study

  LGBT Health · 2025-10-10

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE: Experiences with the criminal legal system can increase the risk of HIV transmission and disrupt linkage to HIV care and prevention. This study quantified the association between criminal legal system involvement and HIV outcomes among transgender women of color (TWOC). METHODS: = 314). We investigated the association between measures of criminal legal system involvement (history of arrest and history of incarceration) and HIV care and prevention outcomes (serostatus, testing, condom use, pre-exposure prophylaxis use, and viral load suppression) among TWOC living in New York City from August 2020 to November 2022. We used modified Poisson regression models to calculate the adjusted prevalence ratios. RESULTS: Among our cohort of TWOC, 50% had previously been arrested and 28% had previously been incarcerated. Half of the participants were living with HIV. History of incarceration was positively associated with living with HIV. Among those living with HIV, a history of incarceration was associated with an increased risk of having a detectable HIV viral load. CONCLUSIONS: Among TWOC in our study, criminal legal system involvement was significantly associated with HIV seropositivity and having a detectable viral load among those living with HIV. These findings highlight the negative health implications of the criminal legal system for a socially oppressed population and can potentially inform future directions to challenge policing practices that disproportionately target TWOC.

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• Community Connectedness as a Source of Adherence to HIV Prevention Behaviors and Resilience Among Transgender Women of Color in New York City, 2020–2022

  American Journal of Public Health · 2025-09-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objectives. To examine how one’s community connectedness may act as a source of resilience and promote HIV prevention and care behaviors among transgender women of color. Methods. We analyzed survey data from 313 transgender women of color living in New York City collected from August 2020 to November 2022. The Community Connectedness Scale asks participants about their baseline feelings of connection, feelings of inclusion, feelings of belonging, feelings of isolation, and feelings of being unlike in relation to the transgender community. The HIV prevention and care outcomes of interest were measured at 6-month follow-up and included consistent condom usage, recent testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), current preexposure prophylaxis use, and HIV viral load suppression. Results. Those with a high (compared to low) community connectedness were 62% more likely to consistently use condoms and 16% more likely to test for STIs. Conclusions. Community connectedness was associated with a greater likelihood of HIV prevention behaviors. Public Health Implications. Future interventions could include strategies to strengthen community connectedness to improve HIV status neutral care continuums. ( Am J Public Health. 2025;115(10):1631–1641. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308144 )

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Circumcision for HIV prevention in men who have sex with men: an updated meta-analysis

  medRxiv · 2025-07-08

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Background While circumcision reduces HIV risk for men who have sex with women, its value for men who have sex with men (MSM) remains unclear. Any protection would be for primarily-insertive MSM (PI-MSM) and could have substantial impact given high incidence. Prior meta-analyses were ambiguous due to inconsistent, highly-confounded data, leaving the total weight of evidence unclear even after a small 2024 trial in PI-MSM showed protection. Setting No geographic or other setting restrictions were used. Methods We performed an updated literature search for data on the association of male circumcision with HIV among MSM. We conducted descriptive analyses and a random-effects meta-analysis to assess the main association among PI-MSM. To isolate the protective effect of circumcision from potential confounding factors, we also performed a confounder-adjusted meta-analysis, comparing the effect of circumcision on HIV status among primarily-insertive MSM versus among other (non-primarily-insertive) MSM in studies with stratified results. Results Forty-nine studies were included in the descriptive analysis, 13 in the unadjusted meta-analysis, and 10 in the confounder-adjusted meta-analysis. In the unadjusted meta-analysis, circumcision was associated with a lower risk for HIV among PI-MSM (odds ratio (OR) = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.33-0.98); publication bias was present. In the confounder-adjusted analysis, the additional effect of circumcision in the PI-MSM group – a ratio of ORs - was 0.53 (95% CI: 0.34– 0.83), indicating a lower bound on the protective effect of circumcision among PI-MSM adjusting for confounding factors. Publication bias was not present. Conclusions Among PI-MSM, circumcision was protective against HIV. Findings support male circumcision as an effective HIV prevention method for PI-MSM, alongside established combination prevention methods including pre-exposure prophylaxis.

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• The medical community must not remain silent about healthcare and water access denial in Palestine

  Dialogues in Health · 2025-10-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Physicians have a duty to oppose the human suffering and human rights abuses occurring in Gaza, particularly the violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). We especially call attention to the scarcity of potable water in Gaza, which has fueled outbreaks of hepatitis A, polio, and skin infections and has created a public health crisis that is further exacerbated by the destruction of healthcare infrastructure and targeting of healthcare workers. The time is long overdue for physicians to affirm that IHL, including guaranteed access to healthcare and potable water, must be upheld to protect the health and safety of all Palestinians. Moreover, as violence against Palestinians and mass displacement campaigns are escalating in the West Bank, this is a pivotal moment for action to prevent further harms.

  PublisherDOI

• COMBINE EBIs: A novel COllaborative Method for Building INterventions from Existing Evidence-Based Interventions

  Annals of Epidemiology · 2025-11-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE: Combining evidence-based interventions (EBIs) is a discrete process from adapting EBIs, and specific guidance for how to combine EBIs could be helpful amidst the proliferation of frameworks that combine and stage EBIs and calls for services to be combined or bundled. To address this gap, we developed and applied the COllaborative Method for Building INterventions from Existing Evidence-Based Interventions (COMBINE-EBIs) approach, a five-step process for combining EBIs. METHODS: The five steps of COMBINE-EBIs are: (1) Identify and Select EBIs, (2) Develop a Shared Conceptual Model, (3) Evaluate the Conceptual Model, (4) Create a Single Combined Protocol, and (5) Refine through Further Input. RESULTS: We developed and applied the 5-step COMBINE-EBIs process to build a fully refined, pre-tested, combined multi-component intervention that leverages intrinsic social network support and mHealth technology to support people with HIV who drink heavily improve HIV care outcomes and reduce alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: COMBINE-EBIs is a rigorous, systematic and efficient approach for building multi-component, multi-modal interventions to address multiple, co-occurring health behaviors simultaneously. COMBINE-EBIs is a resource efficient approach that could facilitate the creation of additional multi-component interventions to address complex, co-occurring health conditions synergistically. Future research should evaluate the feasibility and utility of COMBINE-EBIs, including where adaptations are needed to maximize utility.

  PublisherDOI

• ID# 1881115 Automated Sub-perception Neural Dosing to Provide Sustained Spinal Cord Stimulation Therapy

  Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface · 2025-09-23

  article
  PublisherDOI

• COVID-19 prevention behaviors are congruent within social networks of disenfranchised Hispanic and criminal legal involved community members

  Scientific Reports · 2025-08-29

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The COVID-19 (COVID) pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people who have low income and identify as Hispanic or Latinx (PLIH) as well as those with criminal Legal Involvement (CLI).These two groups, and their intersection, are often disenfranchised from livable wage employment, basic social services, and healthcare, which are vital to prevent the spread of COVID.We examined baseline data from the Community Network-Driven COVID Testing of Marginalized Population in the Central US (C3) which included 1036 participants: 32.1% PLIH, 39.6% CLI, 10.6% who identified as both PLIH and CLI, and 17.6% who were neither PLIH nor CLI.Participants were more likely to engage in COVID preventive behaviors if their social networks engaged in the same behaviors.For example, participants had 9.38 times the odds of being vaccinated if more than 50%, according to their own estimation, of their network were vaccinated (aOR: 9.38, 95%, CI: 4.22-20.84).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• HIV intervention models for criminal justice involved substance-using Black MSM

  NIH · $3.6M · 2015–2022

• Third Coast HIV-Related Cardiovascular and Sleep Disorders K12 Career Development Program

  NIH · $317k · 2018–2023

• PrEP Intervention Models for Young Black MSM: A Place-based Affiliation Network Approach

  NIH · $160k · 2021–2024

• HIV Dissemination Science and Practice Scientific Working Group

  NIH · $65.7M · 2015–2030

• Characterizing Sleep, ART Adherence and Viral Suppression

  NIH · $3.9M · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Kayo Fujimoto

  The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

  98 shared

• Aditya Khanna

  Brown University

  96 shared

• Britt Skaathun

  University of California, San Diego

  86 shared

• Anna Hotton

  University of Chicago

  70 shared

• Lisa M. Kuhns

  Northwestern University

  66 shared

• Bruce G. Taylor

  National Opinion Research Center

  65 shared

• Samuel R. Friedman

  New York University

  63 shared

• Dustin T. Duncan

  Columbia University

  62 shared

Labs

• John Schneider LabPI

Education

• B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies (Public Health, Anthropology and Demography)

  University of California

  1996

• M.D.

  Tufts University

  2001

• Other

  Tufts University

  2001

• M.D., Infectious Diseases

  University of Illinois/University of Chicago

  2006

• M.D., Internal Medicine

  University of Chicago

  2004

• Other, HIV Prevention

  Tufts/Brown CFAR

  2008

Awards & honors

• Senior Faculty Scholar Bucksbaum Institute (2016)
• Distinguished Leader in Diversity and Inclusion Award Univer…
• Diversity Award University of Chicago (2015)
• Leif B. Sorenson Faculty Research Award University of Chicag…
• Lancet International Fellowship The Lancet (2006)