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Closing the barrier between disease and health outcomes in Africa through research and capacity development.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:While the burden of disease in Africa is high, health research emanating from the continent is low. Building human capacity and research infrastructure to close the gap between research and disease is thus of great imporatance. OBJECTIVE:In order to improve research outputs and postgraduate training in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, the Health Sciences Research Office put in place a series of strategic initiatives over time. METHODS:A range of strategic activities, for both postgraduate students and academic staff, were developed in parallel and sequentially over a period of approximately nine years (2008-2016). The latter years were a time of consolidation of the programmes. Outcomes of these activities were 'measured' by increases in publications, decreases in time to graduation and enrichment of the research environment. RESULTS:A doubling of research publications and an increase in citations occurred over the period under review. In addition, there was a decrease in the time postgraduate students took to graduate. CONCLUSIONS:A varied, but structured research management plan may be of value in African and other developing health sciences institutions to enable the increase in research outputs and capacity development, desperately needed to close the barrier between disease and health.

SUBMITTER: Kramer B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5795707 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Closing the barrier between disease and health outcomes in Africa through research and capacity development.

Kramer Beverley B Libhaber Elena E

Global health action 20180101 1

<h4>Background</h4>While the burden of disease in Africa is high, health research emanating from the continent is low. Building human capacity and research infrastructure to close the gap between research and disease is thus of great imporatance.<h4>Objective</h4>In order to improve research outputs and postgraduate training in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, the Health Sciences Research Office put in place a series of strategic initiatives over time.<h4>Methods< ...[more]

PMID: 29370732

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Project description:BackgroundChinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) introduced the Structured Operational Research Training Initiative (SORT IT) into China to build a special capacity and equip public health professionals with an effective tool to support developing countries in strengthening their operational research. The paper aims to investigate and analyze the implementation, outcomes and challenges of the first cycle of SORT IT in China.Main textAs a result of the successful implementation, SORT IT China, Cycle 1 has demonstrated fruitful outputs as exemplified by the 18-month follow-up to the post-training initiatives of the twelve participants, who all achieved the four milestones required by SORT IT. Eleven of twelve (92%) manuscripts generated that focused on the prevention and control of malaria, influenza, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, schistosomiasis, tuberculosis and Japanese encephalitis were published by peer-reviewed international journals with the impact factor ranging from 2.6 to 4.8. The most up-to-date citation count on February 19, 2021 was 53 times out of which 31 times were cited by Science Citation Index papers with 94.827 impact factor in total. Six senior professionals from China CDC also facilitated the whole SORT IT training scheme as co-mentors under the guidance of SORT IT mentors. The twelve participants who gained familiarity with the SORT IT courses and training principles are likely become potential mentors for future SORT IT, but they as the non-first language speakers/users of English also faced the challenge in thoroughly understanding the modules delivered in English and writing English academically to draft the manuscripts.ConclusionThe outcomes from the first cycle of SORT IT in China have led to studies contributing to narrowing the knowledge gap among numerous public health challenges nationally and internationally. It is believed the researchers who participated will continue to apply the skills learned within their domain and help build the training capacity for future operational research courses both in China and in developing countries with similar needs.

Dataset Information

Closing the barrier between disease and health outcomes in Africa through research and capacity development.

Publications

Closing the barrier between disease and health outcomes in Africa through research and capacity development.

Similar Datasets

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