Awarded Global Innovation Challenge Grants
The Partnerships for Advancement in Global Health Professions Education (PAGHE)June 2025
The Partnerships for Advancement in Global Health Professions Education (PAGHE) project enhances global health professions education (HPE) by fostering new initiatives and nurturing long-term academic partnerships. This project, led by the Center for Global Health Education (CGHE) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, collaborates with international academic institutions including Maseno University (MU), University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), Stellenbosch University (SU), and the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth).
PAGHE's objectives include co-developing programs to improve teaching skills of clinical educators, establishing a Global Health Hospital Medicine Fellowship, and creating bidirectional visiting professorships. The project implements a Health Professions Educators Program at MU, revise AFREhealth's Teaching Skills Curriculum, and support UGHE's new Master of Health Professions Education program. Additionally, the fellowship at Northwestern offers advanced global health training, while the visiting professorships will foster research and educational collaboration. By leveraging modern educational technologies and a collaborative model, PAGHE aims to build capacity, enhance curriculum design, and promote knowledge exchange. This initiative addresses the global demand for skilled healthcare professionals and aligns with the transformative goals set by the Lancet Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century. Through these efforts, PAGHE aims to contribute to the sustainable development of HPE programs, thereby benefiting the global health professions community and providing high quality education the next generation of healthcare professionals across our partner sites and beyond.
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Ashti Doobay-Persaud
Site-Principal Investigator(s): Prof. Kiguli-Malwadde, AFREhealth, ACHEST; Prof. van Schalkwyk, Stellenbosch University; Rosebenter Owuor, BScN, MsCN, PhD, Maseno University
Development of an Avian Influenza Test for Point of Care DiagnosisJune 2025
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, HPAI A(H5), causes high mortality in wild birds and domestic poultry. The potential for adaptation to humans is a major pandemic threat. In 2024, HPA| A(H5) was identified in dairy cows and other mammais in the United States, and exposure to intected cows resulted in transmission of the virus to humans.
Although, human-to-human transmission has not been confirmed, the first U.S. human death from avian influenza was reported in January which raises concern that PAI A(HS) is impacting human health. The CDC has issued a Health Alert Network Health Advisory to clinicians and laboratories to subtype all influenza A specimens among hospitalized patients to increase efforts at clinical laboratories to identify non-seasonal influenza. Expediting influenza subtyping avoids delays in detecting HPAI A(H5) infections. The Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies (CIGHT), in collaboration with Minute Molecular Diagnostics now a wholly owned subsidiary of Nuclein LLC, developed DASH, a rapid, low-cost, automated, molecular diagnostic platform for use at the point-of-care. In December 2024, the DASH SARS-CoV-2 & Flu A/B multiplexed test was approved by the FDA for CLIA-waived settings. Here, we develop a test for HPAI A(H5) for the DASH platform that can be used as a reflex test when a positive Influenza A result is determined by the DASH SARS-CoV-2 & Flu A/B. Test (i.e. subtyping) and/or for direct testing of high exposure risk individuals which would include a respiratory specimen and a conjunctiva specimen.
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Sally McFall
Site-Principal Investigator(s): Lesley Scott, Wits Diagnostic Innovation Hub
Helicobacter Infection and Cancer Outcome Research NetworkFebruary 2025
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Principal Investigator: Brian Joyce
Partner Institutions: University of JOS/ Nigeria
Site-Principal Investigator(s): Edith Okeke
Improving Stroke Care for Better Health Outcomes in Kano, NigeriaJune 2024
Quick Facts
Country: Nigeria
Principal Investigator: Philip Gorelick
Partner Institutions: Kano, Nigeria/Bayero University & Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital
Site-Principal Investigator(s): Lukman Owolabi
Building the African Network for HPV-associated Cancer Prevention and ControlOctober 2023
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Lifang Hou and Mamoudou Maiga
Co-Investigator(s): Supriya Mehta, co-I, Rush Univ. Charles Wood, co-I, LSU Jane Holl, co-I, UoC Robert Murphy, co-I, NU Chad Achenbach, co-I, NU Jian-Jun Wei, co-I, NU Imran Morhason-Bello, UI/Nigeria Jonah Musa, co-I, Univ. of Jos/Nigeria Brehima Diakite, co-I, USTTB/Mali Moussa Seydi, UCAD/Senegal Mamadou S Sow, Univ. of Conakry/Guinea Julius Mwaiselage, UDSM/Tanzania Fredrick Otieno, NRHS/Kenya
Partnered Institutions: USA: Rush Unv, LSU, UoC; Nigeria: UI & JOS; Mali: USTTB; Guinea: UC; Tanzania: UDSM; Kenya: NRHS
Understanding solutions to promote healthy Ageing and reduce multimorbidity in RwandaJune 2023
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Lisa Hirschhorn
Co-Investigator(s): Alemayehu Amberbir
Partnered Institutions: Rwanda: University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda
African Hepatitis B/HIV-HBV Co-infection Clinical Research Network (AHBCRN)February 2023
Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) infects over 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and is responsible for about t200,000 deaths per year mostly from liver cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer. HIV is also very common in SSA, present in over 25 million. Because of similar routes of transmission, around 10% of persons with HIV in SSA are living with CHB. HIV has been shown to significantly accelerate the risk of liver complications in persons with CHB, even among those well controlled on HBV-active antiretroviral therapies. In 2016, the WHO Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) on Viral Hepatitis called for a reduction of HBV incidence by 90% and mortality by 65% by 2030 through a number of program interventions such as hepatitis B infant and birth dose vaccination, blood and injection safety and harm reduction, as well as HBV testing and treatment. To date, the hepatitis response in SSA has significantly lagged behind other all other regions reaching these targets. Crucially, there is a dearth of local data on CHB that can help inform best practices in the diagnosis, care and treatment of persons with HBV and HIV-HBV which is significantly hindering progress towards HBV elimination. In addition, persons with CHB with and without HIV in this region remain incompletely characterized which is a significant barrier to participation in clinical trials, particularly those investigating novel curative agents where persons in SSA stand to gain the most benefit. To address some of these critical gaps in CHB research in SSA and be well poised to contribute to future CHB therapeutic trials, we are establishing a multisite African HBV and HIV-HBV Clinical Research Network that enables cutting edge research to be conducted to help improve health outcomes and optimize hepatitis care and treatment in these and other high prevalence settings. This innovation award supports the development of this network and three key deliverables including: i.) implementation of two longitudinal research cohorts of adult HBV and HBV-HIV co-infected participants at each network site; ii) development of a biobank of biospecimens collected on research participants at regularly defined intervals; and iii) creation of a comprehensive dataset of well characterized HBV and HIV-HBV populations providing high-quality preliminary data for future CHB studies and clinical trials. Pooling our expertise and resources to undertake collaborative studies will address some of the critical gaps in HBV prevention and care in low and middle income countries that are preventing progress towards HBV elimination, providing locally and globally relevant and policy changing data on many aspects of HBV patient management.
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Claudia Hawkins
Co-Investigator(s):
Partnered Institutions:
SARS-CoV-2 Transmission & Policy: Using active surveillance with bench science to inform what works, what doesn't, and what's promising?South America (Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia), Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania, Mali, Nigeria), and South Asia (India), Fall 2022
The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate into new variants, which pose a global threat to public health. Because new variants can quickly shift the course of the pandemic, public health leaders often rely on incomplete, delayed data when tasked with critical policy decisions. This project creates an enhanced active surveillance system for researchers around the world to consult. Our interdisciplinary team of experts across surveillance systems, epidemiology, informatics, evaluation methods, engineering, infectious disease, genomics, molecular biology, and econometrics will use the enhanced system to provide immediate answers to key policy questions as new developments in the SARS-CoV-2 virus alter the trajectory of the pandemic. Our long-term goal is to inform effective public health policy on the resolution of this and future public health crises.
Our objective in this proposal is to create and disseminate interdisciplinary research on effective policy at the population level through global partnerships. We will accomplish this objective in two specific aims: (1) To identify shifts and the evolution of the pandemic, at any geographical level and timeframe, using disease modeling, transmission, and expansion metrics of SARS-CoV-2 and its VOI/VOCs. (2) To conduct policy relevant research on SARS-CoV-2 in response to new developments in the pandemic, by using difference-in-differences and dynamic panel estimators. These advanced statistical methods allow us to test policy and effectiveness of vaccinations, quarantines, and various mitigation strategies such as masking, remote work, and learning. We also conduct a simulation study to quantify the potential benefits of our systematic, ongoing disease models as compared to traditional surveillance metrics. Our system of surveillance, modeling, and projections will have a high impact at the global level. To disseminate our work, we have secured partnerships with the media, Northwestern Alumnae, the United Nations, USAID, USAID missions and countries globally, WHO, CDC, and our global network of universities.
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Alexander Lundberg, MS, PhD
Co-Investigator: Lori Ann Post, PhD
Partnered Institutions: All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution (CPGME)
CLOSED: SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and capacity building in Peru and BoliviaPeru and Bolivia, Fall 2022
Since its emergence in 2019, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, has infected hundreds of millions of people in a global pandemic. To define and monitor the effects of variants of concerns (VOCs), researchers and public health experts around the globe rely on genomic surveillance. A lack of timely genomic surveillance information has resulted in an unclear picture of the origin, severity, and transmissibility of VOCs among different global populations. The need for improved genomic surveillance is most acute in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which often lack the resources and expertise to track the emergence and spread of clinically relevant SARSCoV-2 variants. Most countries in South America are notably underrepresented in global genomic surveillance efforts, with just 2.3% of all SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences in the GISAID global database originating from the continent. Improving genomic surveillance capacity in LMICs is critical to the early detection of and response to emerging variants.
Here, we establish and enrich strategic foundational partnerships in three cities in South America (Lima and Iquitos in Peru and Santa Cruz in Bolivia) to fill critical gaps in global SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance infrastructure and build local capacity for pathogen genomics. This will be accomplished in 4 stages: (i) establishment of collaborative ties and an administrative framework across partner institutions; (ii) remote provision of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance capacity through whole-genome sequencing at Northwestern University as well as in Lima, Peru for immediate dissemination and reporting; (iii) local establishment of SOPs for clinical data collection and specimen biobanking; and (iv) provision of consultation and training towards capacity building with the goal of joint funding. The project establishes a network of collaborations in undersurveillanced countries and regions in South America to contribute to local and global COVID-19 research and build capacity for local genomic surveillance.
Quick Facts
Principal Investigator: Egon Ozer, MD, PhD
Co-Investigators: Judd F. Hultquist, PhD & Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, PhD
Partnered Institutions: Centro de Investigaciones Tecnológicas Biomédicas y Medioambientales (CITBM) at the National University of San Marcos in Peru, Iquitos that is dedicated to clinical scientific research, La Asociación Civil Selva Amazónica (ACSA, the Amazon Forest Civil Association), and Human Health Sciences as the Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno (UAGRM)