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Global Health Awarded Projects

The purpose of this grant is to provide support to Northwestern faculty for non-research projects. The fund is not meant to support the same aims of existing projects already funded elsewhere. Priority will be given to supporting long-term partnerships for projects that will have long-term outcomes and impact. Faculty must have a full-time appointment at Northwestern University and be a member of the Institute for Global Health for at least the past six months.

The Global Health Project Awards are supported by the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Global Health Initiative, which is generously supported by Northwestern Medicine Primary & Specialty Care, its patients, and Feinberg’s donors.

 Evaluating a primary care model for key populations at ClĂ­nica de Familia La Romana
June 2024

Northwestern University partners with Clínica de Familia, a Dominican non-governmental organization providing health services in the Eastern Dominican Republic, in order to expand the implementation of a project aimed at providing high-quality primary care to 1,008 individuals from key populations (sex workers, men who have sex with men and trans women). These populations have more limited access to primary care services than the general population because of stigma and discrimination faced by these populations in both public and private health centers. Clínica de Familia has a long track record in the community providing services to these populations.

This project programmatically complements our Catalyzer research proposal which was submitted in November 2023 to conduct a formal evaluation of the program through an implementation science study.

Quick Facts

Principal Investigator: Shannon Galvin

 Scoping Current Opportunities for Health Professions Educations (SCOHPE) Satellite Conference at AFREHealth 2024
June 2024

This proposal seeks funding for a satellite conference titled "Scoping Current Opportunities for Health Professions Educations (SCOHPE)," to be held in conjunction with the 8th Annual African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREHealth) Symposium in Nairobi, Kenya, from August 4-8, 2024. In response to the global need for expanded training opportunities in health professions education, the ongoing SCOHPE study investigates the current landscape, barriers, and facilitators of Departments of Health Professions Education (DHPEs) across East, West, and Southern Africa (ESWA). Through surveys and interviews with key personnel, SCOHPE aims to provide insights into diverse approaches and strategies employed in health professions education. To foster collaboration and practical application, the research team invites regional "team leads" to contribute to the study's recruitment, follow-up, and contextually appropriate interview approaches. The proposed satellite conference at AFREHealth 2024 aims to disseminate preliminary findings, gather stakeholders for feedback, and refine recommendations applicable to DHPEs and regional needs. The conference aligns with AFREHealth's mission of developing health professionals' education and research in Africa, fostering collaboration, and reducing health disparities. Additionally, it supports Northwestern's partnership with Maseno University, offering valuable guidance for the implementation of a new department of medical education. Overall, this initiative strengthens educational partnerships, promotes equity, and supports AFREHealth's commitment to advancing health professions education in Africa.

 

Quick Facts

Principal Investigator: Ashti Doobay-Persaud

 Supporting Health, Education & Lifelong healthy habits: Towards Empowerment and Resilience (SHELTER): Tea Champions
February 2024

Poverty and social oppression lead to long-term issues which repeat across generations in a vicious cycle. Despite India being the second biggest producer of tea in the world with Assam accounting for approximately half of India's tea production, tea plantation workers in Assam continue to face precarious living and working conditions. One of the largest problems is lack of strong educational capacity leading to poor health access, poor nutritional status, and low levels of women's empowerment. High levels of school dropout rates, particularly among girls lead to early marriage, and early pregnancy, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. In addition, early dropout from school also increases child labor and human trafficking. To address the issue of poor educational capacity, the SHELTER Tea Champions project brings together academic organizations, public health scientists and civil society organizations active in this community with a common goal of increasing the number of children who can reach high school graduation thereby increasing their future opportunities for gainful employment. As part of a collaborative effort between the teams from the Havey Institute of Global Health at Northwestern University, Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Maternal and Child Health India program of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health we plan to actively engage with these populations using the SHELTER (Supporting Health, Education, & Livelihood: Towards Empowerment and Resilience) model. The aims of the SHELTER model are guided by and aligned with the transformative and universal framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly those focusing on health (SDG3), education (SDG4), gender equality (SDG5) and livelihoods (SDG8).
The SHELTER Tea Champions project is a unique program of supervised additional tutoring for small groups of children within villages by trained youth tutors chosen from these communities based on their work and leadership potential demonstrated on prior projects. In addition, we expect an overall improvement in public health of these children and their families through education of healthy living, better nutrition and increased physical activity. This tutoring program for children of tea plantation workers with the goal of school retention and graduation beyond high school is a way forward towards greater societal empowerment and decreased violation of child rights in the intermediate and long-term. This project is implemented in two districts in Assam consisting of 20 villages, covering about 1000 children aged 5-14 years, and is conducted in two phases. The first phase includes formative assessments and identification and training of youth tutors and establishment in each village of 'SHELTER clubs' - groups of 50 children and their respective youth tutor. The second phase includes activities of active tutoring, livelihood counseling and support with health maintenance. A novel component within this interdisciplinary consortium is the identification of local youth tutors with leadership potential who will serve as mentors and role models for younger children, enhancing education and school retention among children, and who will be supported and empowered to become agents of change and thus bringing about sustainable development within the community.

 

Quick Facts

Country: India

Principal Investigator: Jyothy Puthumana

Partner Institutions: Center for Development Initiatives Anita Shet/ John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

 Advanced Faculty Development Partnership in Medical Education at Maseno University

February 2024

Medical education in Kenya has seen notable progression with thirteen medical schools currently established since the inauguration of the University of Nairobi's medical program in 1967. With an annual turnout of approximately 1000 doctors from these schools, challenges in training quality remain with reports from recent medical graduates feeling under-prepared for real world clinical responsibilities. Efforts to bolster the quality of medical education in Kenya necessitate a focus on enhancing the skills of medical educators. The partnership Maseno University School of Medicine (MUSM) and the Center for Global Health Education at Northwestern University aim to bridge this gap, with support for a new MUSM Department of Medical Education. The current key areas in this long term program are the support for an annual Kenyan Medical Education Conference and
bringing key medical education personnel from MUSM to Northwestern for collaborative meetings.

 

Quick Facts

Country: Kenya

Principal Investigator: Colleen Fant

Partner Institutions: Maseno University

 Medical Technologies in Global Public Health Student Scholarships
February 2024

The Kellogg School of Management's Medical Technologies in Global Public Health course (co-taught by Palamountain and Kirby) provides students the unique opportunity to conduct needs assessments informing the design and launch of global health medical technologies. The course provides innovators designing technologies for low- and middle-income countries with the opportunity to obtain user feedback. To obtain this feedback, students typically participate in a two-week faculty-supervised trip to collect feedback. This funding helps to subsidize the cost of the trip as students pay out-of-pocket for the travel and expenses. We are requesting $20,000 in funding for these scholarships for the Winter and Spring 2024 classes.

Quick Facts

Principal Investigator: Becca Kirby

Partner PI: Kara Palamountain

Partner Country: South Africa

 Tanzanian HIV and Ageing Longitudinal Cohort Study (HALCS)
October 2023

Globally, life expectancy for people living with HIV (PLH) has increased substantially, nearing that of the general population, as a result of widespead access to effective antiretroviral treatments. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 15% of PLH are aged at least 50 years and modeling predicts an increase of 27%, resulting in 9.1 million older PLH by 2040. HIV infection is associated with accelerated biological ageing, and a higher risk of geriatric syndromes, such as frailty, cognitive dysfunction and age-related medical co-morbidities that can significantly impact quality of life. In SSA, data on the burden of geriatric syndromes among older PLH and their impact on quality of life remains extremely limited as well as valid disease measures for monitoring ageing related co-morbidities such as frailty and cognitive dysfunction. The overall aim of this project is to establish the framework for a multisite, longitudinal research cohort of PLH >50yrs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from which important and locally relevant studies of HIV and ageing that help improve health outcomes and optimize the care of the older ALH in this setting can be conducted. Activities proposed in the preparation that will be supported by this award include Focus Group Discussions with PLH>50 to identify priority areas for research and strategies for improving patient engagement in HIV and ageing research; study site capacity and feasibility assessments; identification of potential study participants and creation of a research data management system using REDcap.

Quick Facts

Country: Tanzania

Principal Investigator: Claudia Hawkins

Partner Institutions: Kiev Regional Hospital, Ukraine

 Focused Pediatric Echocardiogram Training at Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza, Tanzania
June 2023

Lurie Children's Hospital has a longstanding educational partnership with Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza, Tanzania. As the bidirectional partnership has grown, so too have the partnership activities in response to priorities identified by Bugando leadership. One such priority is improving the educational opportunities in pediatric cardiology. As part of this new initiative a multi-modal curriculum has been developed that combines virtual, partially asynchronous learning, simulation modules, and an in person cardiac ultrasound training program. This program will be piloted in AY 2022-2023 and provides the culminating curricular activity and to be held on an annual basis. The curricular content and objectives were agreed upon by Bugando leadership and the curriculum itself was created by a graduating pediatric resident with content expertise from the division of pediatric cardiology at Lurie. The curriculum has been in process for over a year and is set to launch. This project proposal is to fund one specific program component.
At this time there are no formally trained pediatric cardiologists and primary cardiac ultrasounds are done by faculty with limited training. As pediatric cardiac imaging is a strength of Lurie Children's this program is ideal to strengthen this partnership. After asynchronous learning provided to Bugando pediatric residents and interested faculty, two pediatric cardiologists from Lurie will join the pediatrics team for one week of hands-on training. During this in person workshop, learners will apply their knowledge using deliberate practice under the guidance of the Lurie pediatric cardiology experts. At the culmination of this workshop knowledge and performance competencies will be assessed.

 

 

Quick Facts

Country: Tanzania

Principal Investigator: Angira Patel

 Building Capacity for Treatment of Surgical Epilepsy in Uganda
June 2022

Epilepsy affects 50-70 million population worldwide, with 2.56-8.30 million newly diagnosed each year, in which low and middle income are disproportionally affected. The most common etiologies of repeated seizures include birth-related injuries, infections, traumatic brain injuries, and stroke. CURE Children's Hospital in Mbale has served as a champion for pediatric neurosurgery in East Africa. With improvements in neurosurgical care delivery, pediatric patients have improved longevity, but many suffer from chronic conditions such as epilepsy and spasticity. Pediatric neurosurgeons are identified in this proposal, trained in electroencephalogram (EEG), and formal epilepsy conferences are conducted to identify patients that would benefit in terms of seizure control, quality of life, improved neurocognitive outcomes, and improved survival from surgical intervention.

 

Quick Facts

Country: Uganda

Principal Investigator: Sandi Lam

 Primary Care Quality Improvement Transformation for Private Health Sector in Liberia
October 2021

Snapper Hill Clinic is a private health center in Liberia that provides primary care services for ~30,000 patients annually. Snapper Hill is currently the only medical institution in Liberia that is accredited by SafeCare, an international quality healthcare standard. This project will not only strengthen primary care at Snapper Hill, but will also build the foundation for Quality Improvement (QI) in primary health care across the country.

 

Quick Facts

Country: Liberia

Principal Investigator: Becca Kirby

 CLOSED: Development of a Neuro-COVID-19 Program in Nigeria
June 2022

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus type 2 (SARSCoV-2). In less than 2 years, there have been more than 278 million confirmed cases worldwide and 5.3 million deaths. In Nigeria, there have been at least 239,000 reported cases and close to 3000 deaths. Most of the cases have been detected in the city of Lagos which is currently experiencing a rapid surge in the number of new infections in a population of 14.8 million where only 4% have been fully vaccinated. While some patients suffer from severe COVID-19 pneumonia often requiring mechanical ventilation in the ICU,
approximately 80% of SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals have only mild initial respiratory symptoms and do not require hospitalization for pneumonia or hypoxemia. However, many present with symptoms persisting > 4 weeks after COVID-19 onset which are now called "post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection" (PASC). Our prospective study of the first 100 non-hospitalized "long haulers seen in our Neuro-COVID 19 clinic from May-November 2020 show that they have a median 5 neurologic symptoms, and the most frequent include brain fog, headache, numbness/tingling, dysgeusia, anosmia, myalgia, dizziness, pain, blurred vision, and tinnitus. Those patients have decreased quality of life due to their symptoms and show cognitive dysfunction in standardized tests of attention and working memory. Interestingly non-hospitalized patients are younger than hospitalized patients (mean 43.2 years) and 70% are female. Whether the epidemiology and clinical presentation of Neuro-PASC is similar or different in Nigeria compared to the US is unknown. However, there are a number of geographic, cultural and social differences towards health-related issues and delivery of care between the US and Nigeria, which preclude the immediate initiation of a research project based solely on US standards. We are first proposing to carry out a non-research systematic evaluation, education, and
implementation project that will address issues pertinent to access and delivery of Neuro-PASC care in Nigeria, that will result in reasonable and realistic solutions that then can be successfully implemented at LUTH and scaled up further to wider regional and national levels.

 

Quick Facts

Country: Nigeria

Principal Investigator: Igor Koralnik

 CLOSED: Improvement of Peri-operative Infectious Complications in Ukraine
Ukraine, Fall 2020

Surgical site infections are common perioperative complications responsible for increased healthcare expenditures. Rates of SSI for abdominal procedures vary from under 10%, in programs with higher resources and strict adhesions to quality improvement measures, to above 20% for programs in lower resources environments. Rates of perioperative infections in Ukraine are a major issue affecting the system at large. Previous attempts to introduce infection control measures were minimally successful in large part because they relied on wholesale implementation of measures developed and reasonable in a high resource western medical environment; in large part, regional issues were not taken into consideration. In addition, older instruments and outdated cleaning techniques were likely significant contributors to this problem. We are proposing a systematic evaluation, education, and implementation project that will address issues pertinent to surgical care in Ukraine, that will result in reasonable and realistic solutions that then can be scaled up to wider regional and national solutions.

Objective: To identify factors contributing to a high rate of peri-operative infectious complications in Ukraine and identify easy to intervene measures in a resource poor environment. To achieve this objective, the
following aims are proposed:

Specific Aim 1: Collect detailed data on factors known to affect peri-operative infections. Survey all
participants involved on their understanding, attitude and barriers for implantation of infectious
prophylaxis measures.
Specific Aim 2: Evaluation of surgical instruments and processes for cleaning, storage and usage with
identification of correctible factors.
Specific Aim 3: Analysis and initial implementation of corrective actions with post implementation result
analysis

Quick Facts

Country: Ukraine

Partner Institutions: Kiev Regional Hospital, Ukraine

Principal Investigator: Vitaliy Poylin, MD

Site-Principal Investigator: Andriy Kebkalo, MD

 CLOSED: Develop a telepathology and HPV genomic screening in promoting cervical
February 2023

In Nigeria and Mali, the lack of organized screening programs for human papillomavirus (HPV) associated cancers including cervical and oropharyngeal cancers and other related health services factors aggravate the incidence and mortality due to these diseases. In LMICs, nearly 20-30% of all cancer cases are HPV-associated cancers. As a result, our team was recently successful in securing new major grants' funding from the NIH, on oropharyngeal cancer (R01CA274952 Hou/Morhason-Bello/Murphy), and cervical cancer (U01CA275129 Hou/Holl/Maiga). The current local laboratory capacities in Ibadan and Bamako sites are not sufficient to implement our proposed strategies in these two grants. We request funding for this project award to purchase two GeneXpert 4-module instruments for HPV testing and one slide scanner for telepathology for each Ibadan and Bamako. These new instruments will reinforce our capacity in participants recruitments for these two and other future projects. These will also improve significantly our training capacities in these two important sites for Northwestern University's collaborations in West Africa.

 

Quick Facts

Country: Nigeria and Mali

Partner Institutions: University of Lagos and University of Jos, Nigeria

Principal Investigator: Jian-Jun Wei, MD

 CLOSED: Medical Technologies in Global Public Health Student Scholarships
February 2023

The Kellogg School of Management's Medical Technologies in Global Public Health course (co-taught by Palamountain and Kirby) provides students the unique opportunity to conduct needs assessments informing the design and launch of global health medical technologies. The course provides innovators, many of whom received funding from IGH and Northwestern C-THAN grants (e.g., Dr. Robert's Liver Cancer Test, Dr. Mzurikwao's AI-based cervical cancer test, and some WASH products from colleagues in Nigeria), with the opportunity to obtain user feedback on their innovations. To obtain this feedback, students typically participate in a two week trip to a different country in Africa. Prior to COVID-19, the IGH provided $1,000 scholarships
to students as well as two $5,000 needs-based scholarships. This funding helped to subsidize the cost of the trip as student pay out-of-pocket for the travel and expenses. As we look to resume student travel for the course (Winter & Spring 2023), we are requesting $25,000 in funding to resume these scholarships. This will allow us to retain and attract students as we look to travel to South Africa to re-engage in person with our C-THAN partners at WITS, UCT, and Stellenbosch in Johannesburg and Cape Town and obtain their feedback on exciting innovations funded by IGH and C-THAN.

Quick Facts

Principal Investigator: Becca Kirby

 CLOSED: Combatting poverty and malnutrition in the Kigezi sub-region in Southwestern Uganda: The Rabbit Breeding Project
October 2021

Poverty and poor nutrition remain key hindrances to attainment of an integrated Primary Health Care delivery in Uganda. Uganda suffers from high rates of child malnutrition, of which 80% is due to a lack of protein in the diet. We aim to combat poverty and malnutrition in the Kigezi sub-region in Southwestern Uganda via rabbit breeding to promote protein intake, income generation, and food security in selected households.

Quick Facts

Country: Uganda

Principal Investigator: Danielle Steker

 CLOSED: Advanced, Wireless Cloud-Enabled Vital Signs Sensors For Remote Monitoring of Frontline Healthcare Workers at Risk for COVID-19 in Global Health Settings
Zambia, Spring 2020

Frontline healthcare workers (FHWs) represent an especially important population—surveillance of respiratory symptoms in these individuals and their families would help protect these individuals, prioritize testing, and reduce potential exposure to other FHWs and vulnerable patients in the global health setting. This need is heightened in the context of FHWs without direct, clear COVID-19 exposure or when symptoms are mild (e.g. children of FHWs). The continued lag in availability of COVID-19 laboratory testing, particularly in the global health setting, necessitates the need for advanced, non-invasive remote monitoring systems that can act as surveillance systems for disease progression by measuring key physiological parameters relevant to COVID-19. Objective measurements of mild infection for FHWs and their close contacts would help triage and prioritize confirmatory testing in FHWs over a typical 14-day self-quarantine period. We have developed an advanced, wearable, soft and flexible sensor capable of continuously capturing COVID-19 related symptoms like respiratory rate, cough count, temperature, heart rate, ECG, body position, and physical activity integrated with a mobile phone. In the proposed implementation project for COVID-19 monitoring, we aim to capture core vital sign data and novel respiratory biomarkers from 10 frontline healthcare workers over the course of 2 weeks of continuous wear using the chest sensor at University Teaching Hospitals Women and Newborn Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia—we have an ongoing IRB and relationship with UTH (Professor Bellington Vwalika, Chair of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) in collaboration with the University of North Carolina (Jeffrey Stringer MD, Division Director of Global Women's Health).

Quick Facts

Country: Zambia

Partner Institutions: University Teaching Hospitals Women and Newborn Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia

Principal Investigator: Steve Xu, MD, MSc

Site-Principal Investigator: Bellington Vwalika and Jeffrey Stringer, MD

 CLOSED: COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Awareness Campaign and Telehealth System in Liberia
Liberia, Spring 2020

Snapper Hill Clinic (the “Clinic”), with support from Northwestern University, propose to raise awareness on COVID-19 infection and prevention control measures and to continue to deliver care to patient through a telehealth system. The Clinic is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting Liberia by:


Aim 1: Delivering Awareness on COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Measures and;
Aim 2: Implementing Telehealth System.

Quick Facts

Country: Liberia

Partner Institutions: Snapper Hill Clinic, Liberia

Principal Investigator: Kara Palamountain, MBA

 CLOSED: Building the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malawi
Malawi, Spring 2020

The proposed project builds upon an existing relationship that Riders for Health (RFH) has with Northwestern University as a sub-contractor to the C-THAN grant (U54EB027049) funded by the National Institute of Health Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)'s Point-of-Care (POC) Technologies Research Network (POCTRN). More specifically, RFH is working with C-THAN on a project titled "University Optimized Sample Transportation to support POC deployment Information Sharing and Motorcycle Routing in Diagnostic Networks" with the aim to generate insights for how to deploy POC devices in a centralized diagnostic network.

Quick Facts

Country: Malawi

Partner Institutions: Riders for Health Malawi (Riders) Malawi

Principal Investigator: Kara Palamountain, MBA

Site-Principal Investigator: Mphatso Kachule

 CLOSED: Development of an Innovative Blended Learning Opportunity for Introduction to Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Methods in Response D43 Training Disruptions Due to COVID-19
Tanzania, Spring 2020

In 2018, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (NU) was awarded a D43 grant from the Fogarty with Muhimbilli University of Health and Affiliated Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam to strengthen the existing partnerships through building research capacity in Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) in HIV in Tanzania. The grant was launched with enrollment of PHD, post-doctoral and master's levels students and in-person workshops which have built collaborations between MUHAS and NU faculty, However the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted travel to NU to continue the training and to Tanzania to continue to build faculty capacity and peer-to-peer networks. We are proposing developing a new blended learning opportunity to continue the work to support PCOR capacity and skills development for the trainees and selected interested faculty in Tanzania building on widely used massive open on-line course (MOOCs) developed by MD Anderson and other relevant courses combined with a virtual journal club modeled on the successful implementation research reading course ongoing through NUCATS and a course in progress through the R01 in Abuja (Huffman and Ojji PIs).

Quick Facts

Country: Tanzania

Partner Institutions: Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania

Principal Investigator: Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH

Site-Principal Investigator: Sylvia Kaaya

 CLOSED: User Feedback Project - COVID-19 Social Mobility Network
Multiple locations, Spring 2020

This is a project proposal that seeks to provide user-feedback for an interdisciplinary response focused global effort during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The project described below involves researchers who are applying their skills and training to this global program, but the proposal is focused on non-research project efforts to assist the Network in efficiently improving its impact to support policy-makers and public health decision-makers around the world in a timely manner.

Quick Facts

Partner Institutions: The COVID-19 Mobility Data Network

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Chan, MD, MPH

 CLOSED: Global Health Scholars
Mali and sub-Saharan Africa, Winter 2020

The Northwestern Medicine (NM) Institute for Global Health (IGH) and the University of Sciences Techniques, and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), have an established successful training relationship, and now seek to build a sustainable doctoral research training program -- the Northwestern Medicine IGH Scholars Program. The initial six (6) Northwestern Medicine IGH Scholars will focus on TB, HIV, and colorectal cancer to address pressing local and global research priorities and significant health problems in Mali, and in sub-Saharan Africa. While the six candidates will leverage the resources of existing IGH-funded research projects to conduct their PhD thesis research project at USTTB, IGH-funded research projects are not permitted to support any tuition for students, and, given Mali’s low income status, neither USTTB nor the students themselves have the resources.

Quick Facts

Country: Mali and sub-Saharan Africa

Partner Institutions: Universite des Sciences, des Techniques et des Technologies de Bamako, Mali

Principal Investigator: Mamoudou Maiga, MD, PhD

 CLOSED: Global Health Education Day
United States, Winter 2020

This project intends to support activities of the inaugural Global Health Education (GHE) Day, to be held on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at the Feinberg campus. This will be the first major event for the Center for Global Health Education (CGHE) within the Institute for Global Health, and one that we anticipate holding on an annual basis.

GHE 2020 will be an opportunity to draw together global health researchers, educators, and students from NU and across the region to highlight current and future training opportunities within the Center and foster further collaboration across units at NU. Below we outline the proposed structure of day’s activities, noting the goals/objectives, location, and key participants for each part.

Goals/Objectives:
1. Scientific poster presentation will provide global health students and trainees from programs across the campuses with the opportunity to present and disseminate their scholarly works. This is a requirement for the McGaw Global Health Clinical Scholars.
2. The keynote address by Dr. Gavin Yamey will highlight the skills and training required for addressing the current and emerging issues in global health. He will also discuss how to translate training and knowledge into action for promoting global health equity.
3. The luncheon will help to foster and establish interdisciplinary connections among students, faculty and alumni interested in global health.
4. Workshops and panel will promote skill development in global health and humanities, evaluation and assessment methods in educational programs and career building strategies in research, education and policy global health fields.

Quick Facts

Country: United States

Principal Investigator: William Leonard, PhD and Ashti Doobay-Persaud, MD

 CLOSED: Development of a Capacity Building Course of Implementation Research: A North-South Collaboration
Rwanda and United States, Winter 2020

The last century has produced a wealth of evidence based interventions (EBIs) to reduce morbidity and mortality, yet there is a gap between the knowledge that has been generated on interventions and the effective delivery of those interventions in many low and middle income countries. The resulting inadequacies in access and quality is associated with over 8 million deaths. Implementation research (IR) is essential to understand how to address these delivery and policy gaps, learning from countries that are effectively implementing EBIs and generating the transferable knowledge needed to continue progress towards the global Sustainable Development Health Goals and effective Universal Health Coverage.

The proposed partner institutions, Northwestern University and the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda, have a successful track record of carrying out studies to understand the contextual factors that influence the choice of implementation strategies and adaptations needed to transfer lessons learned from one setting to another. The two universities have been collaborating on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project (Dr Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor UGHE, Dr Hirschhorn, Northwestern) to apply IR to understand reductions in under- 5 mortality in countries that exceeded expectations based on their resources and region. The Northwestern has also been a leader in developing capacity in IR in the US and in other settings including through the Center for Prevention Intervention Methodology (Ce-PIM: Introductory
online sessions, Prevention Science and Methodology Group online series, implementation science reading courses)3, Ce-PIM and the Third Coast CFAR (online introduction to IR and Implementation Science Working group)4, development and testing of an Implementation Research Logic Model5 by J.D. Smith for training and designing IR studies, and ongoing work to adapt and implement the reading course and introductory implementation research embedded in an RO1 to improve hypertension care in Nigeria.

Aims:
1. Develop, pilot, and evaluate a 1-year combined in-person and distance course with didactic and distance mentoring to increase IR knowledge among existing MGHD students and build advanced IR capacity for selected students at UGHE.
2. Provide distance mentoring to the selected 3-4 masters students to integrate IR into their master’s theses.
3. Integrate results of evaluation to adapt pilot curricula for ongoing integration into courses at UGHE, providing resources for expansion into other projects at Northwestern and UGHE.

Quick Facts

Country: Rwanda and United States

Partner Institutions: University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda/US

Principal Investigator: Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH

Site-Principal Investigator: Agnes Binagwaho

 CLOSED: Access to Health: Community Health Education in Nigeria
Nigeria, Winter 2020

The Northwestern Access to Health Project (ATH) is an interdisciplinary global community health project that brings law, public health, medical, and business faculty and graduate students together with communities, health advocates, government and university institutions, and human rights organizations in other countries. ATH operates as part of the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the Institute for Global Health at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Founded in 2011 by Professor Juliet Sorensen and Dr. Shannon Galvin, ATH encourages Northwestern graduate students to engage in global health issues by working directly with communities and local NGOs. By working across disciplines, ATH aims to create targeted and sustainable projects that respond to health-related issues of poor communities, and to teach students how to engage in interdisciplinary, transnational partnerships that encourage global citizenship and understanding.

Quick Facts

Country: Nigeria

Principal Investigator: Shannon Galvin, MD

 CLOSED: Kellogg Needs Assessment Trip Scholarships
United States, Fall 2020

This proposal leverages over 12 years of teaching and expertise in conducting needs assessments for development of new global health technologies from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg). Since 2006, Kellogg has trained over 300 MBA students conducted global health technology market research in the following 18 countries: Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Through a 10-week course taught at Kellogg by Research Associate Professor Kara Palamountain, MBA students learn to conduct needs assessments during a 2-week field research trip supervised by Kellogg faculty. The field research trips are student-funded, although the Global Health Initiative provided $40,000 in 2018 and 2019 to cover a portion of the field research trip cost. This $40,000 of funding allowed for the 30 students per year to receive at least $1,000 travel scholarships and two needs based scholarships to cover the full cost of the field research trip. We propose $25,000 from the Global Health Project Award to continue this travel subsidy for students.

Quick Facts

Partner Institutions: Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

Principal Investigator: Kara Palamountain, MBA

 CLOSED: Pilot faculty enrichment program for Sub-Saharan modelers
June 2022

Malaria burden remains high in Sub-Saharan Africa despite two decades of intense intervention. Regular analysis and use of public health data will lead to more effective control through evidence-based decision-making. A recent WHO initiative developed frameworks for malaria control programs to use their malaria data to design national strategic plans and recruited modelers to predict the impact of candidate plans. However, this operationally-relevant malaria modeling was carried out in highincome countries rather than by local scholars with local connections and expertise. While WHO's initiative laid the foundations for use of data in malaria decision-making, the potential utility of modeling and analytics was not maximized in the first iteration and more can be done. Scholars with skills in mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, including malaria, do exist in Sub-Saharan African universities. However, most are not engaged in with their country's public health programs, although many are keen to apply their skills to pressing public health needs. Modelers in malaria-endemic countries indicate that they are hampered by 1) limited data access and experience with using public health data and 2) lack of facility with the state-of-the-art models needed for operational modeling. To address these gaps, we will develop, pilot, and evaluate a 16-week intensive inperson training program in operational malaria modeling. This is the first training program targeted at Sub-Saharan African mathematical modeler faculty and tailored to their experience and needs. Successful completion of this project will result in a small cohort of African modelers with competencies they can use to address malaria needs in their home countries, train their own trainees, and grow a community of African modelers working in operational malaria modeling. Program evaluations and trainee feedback will enable Northwestern to improve the learning approach and address remaining gaps in the next iteration of this and related capacity development programs. The pilot program experience and connections built between Northwestern and program participants will build toward a D43 application.

Quick Facts 

Country: Sub-Saharan Africa

Principal Investigator: Jaline Gerardin

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