Project Funding Details

PROJECT ABSTRACT Significant advances in global health have been achieved in recent decades. Yet, serious disparities in health outcomes persist, especially among children, adolescents and their adult caregivers. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the regions disproportionately burdened by multiple health threats, including endemic CDs; emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; increasing incidence of NCDs, and a set of exacerbating factors that have contributed to poor public health and increased overall disease burden affecting children, adolescents and their adult caregivers. Similar trends are documented in several other LMICs, including countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. In light of widespread health inequities and gaps in the translation and uptake of scientific evidence in real-world settings in LMICs, dissemination and implementation (D&I) science can advance timely and context- specific public health solutions. Moreover, significant methodological advances in data science can create new opportunities to more accurately identify at-risk populations, better understand patterns and mechanisms of health burdens, and allow for more in-depth analysis of implementation gaps and disparities in healthcare systems and across populations in LMICs. The proposed research training program, entitled 'Addressing the Research Capacity Gap in Global Child, Adolescent & Family Health Disparities Utilizing Implementation and Data Sciences among Vulnerable Populations in Resource-limited Settings (ACHIEVE)', focuses on increasing D&I and data science capacity to address global health disparities affecting children, adolescents and their adult caregivers. The program addresses the following specific aims: Aim 1: To provide a research training program to five cohorts (~50 trainees) of health care professionals and post-doctoral trainees from the U.S., and post-professional degree graduates from SSA that equips trainees with D&I and data science research skills and knowledge through experiential learning, mentoring, 'hands-on' immersion in global health implementation and data science research and methodologies, individualized consultation, goal setting and monitoring and web- based support across time; Aim 2: Bring together an interprofessional network of committed mentors from the global north and the global south to promote equitable bi-directional learning and collaboration and ensure quality training for promising new investigators committed to applying D&I and data science research methods to address health disparities impacting children, adolescents, and their families in low-resource settings; Aim 3: To examine the short-term and longitudinal outcomes of the ACHIEVE training program; and Aim 4. Delineate key factors that underlie successful mentorship and training of new investigators- with potential implications for new investigators who are focused on D&I and data science research that seek to address health disparities impacting children, adolescents, and their adult caregivers. The four U.S. universities have each committed matching funds totaling $600,000 to support the ACHIEVE program.

PROJECT NARRATIVE While significant advances in global health have been achieved in recent decades, serious disparities in health outcomes persist, especially among children, adolescents and their adult caregivers. The proposed research training program in global health disparities research, entitled 'Addressing the Research Capacity Gap in Global Child, Adolescent & Family Health Disparities Utilizing Implementation and Data Sciences among Vulnerable Populations in Resource-limited Settings (ACHIEVE)', focuses on increasing dissemination and implementation (D&I) and data science research capacity in order to address global health disparities affecting children, adolescents and their adult caregiving families; and is designed for Medical Doctors and Post-Doctoral trainees from diverse backgrounds in the United States (including underrepresented minorities) and sub-Saharan Africa. The ultimate goal of the ACHIEVE program is to support the development of a cadre of early career researchers applying D&I and data science research methods to ensure that research on evidence-based practices, interventions, and policies are effectively translated to and used in real-world settings heavily affected by health disparities impacting children, adolescents, and the adults who raise them in low and middle-income countries.