2021 updates from the Center for Global Health Studies (CGHS)

January 14, 2021

On behalf of Fogarty’s Center for Global Health Studies (CGHS), happy New Year! In 2020, we continued to contribute to the NIH and Fogarty International Center global health research agendas in a variety of ways. I am delighted to share highlights and a preview for 2021.

Beginning in July of 2020 and on behalf of the NIH Common Fund, CGHS organized a virtual symposium to launch Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa). The symposium included interactive sessions on cross-cutting topics and a unique networking platform to help applicants identify potential collaborators. It convened more than 2,200 people, mostly from Africa, including participants from academia, the private sector, government and NGOs, and helped generate strong interest in the program’s new funding opportunities. This year our team will capture learnings from the symposium in a series of papers authored by leading data scientists working in Africa. The DS-I Africa awards are expected to be issued later this year.

At the 2020 International AIDS Society AIDS meeting, the HIV/NCD integration project launched a CGHS-sponsored JAIDS supplement that examines challenges around integration of services for HIV and other conditions. The supplement highlights the important role that mathematical modelling can play in informing how best to deliver integrated care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

As part of Childhood Obesity Prevention Across Borders: The Promise of U.S.-Latin American Research Collaboration, we helped support new collaborations between U.S. and Latin American investigators and among investigators across Latin American countries. In 2021, we will launch a special issue in Obesity Review on prevention of childhood obesity in Latin America and Latino populations in the U.S., highlighting common areas of research interest and international collaboration.

In February 2020, we held the fourth annual meeting of the Adolescent HIV Prevention and Treatment Implementation Science Alliance (AHISA) in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition, to understand first-hand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth and their access to HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa, we held a webinar in July with youth representatives from Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa. We also awarded a second round of collaborative contracts to catalyze sustainable country- and region-specific implementation science alliances in sub-Saharan Africa, and to support the adaptation of AHISA-related research in response to the current global pandemic.

Looking forward, we plan to:

• Continue to catalyze health research in humanitarian crises by publishing case examples and organizing a virtual workshop for scientists to share research strategies and lessons learned.
• Host a virtual pilot global forum for humanitarian health research together with other global research funding partners.
• Hold a research training institute for LMIC and U.S. scientists to strengthen capacity in stigma research.
• Commission a set of case studies demonstrating the rigorous application of implementation science to enhance the utilization and scale-up of interventions in the global health context.

We remain appreciative of our Fogarty, NIH and outside partners. With their support and collaboration, we will continue our mission to catalyze global health research and strengthen scientific capacity in high-priority areas.

Wishing you all the best in 2021.

Nalini Anand, J.D., M.P.H.
Director, Center for Global Health Studies

To view Adobe PDF files, download current, free accessible plug-ins from Adobe's website.