Awards
October 14, 2015
Spotlight on Global WACh Seed Grant Recipient Deepa Rao
Tags: maternal health, preterm birth, South India
We took a few moments to catch up with Dr. Deepa Rao, an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health and recipient of a Global WACh integrated health seed grant. Dr. Rao’s grant funding was awarded to explore the impact of domestic violence and depressive symptoms on preterm birth in South India. India has a very high domestic violence rate in addition to having the highest number of maternal deaths, preterm birth, and under 5 mortality in the world. Global WACh viewed this proposal as an opportunity to understand more about the relationship between the two.
“We need to look at the person holistically and realize a mother’s mental health is connected to their baby’s health and it’s not a solely biological process. In my training I’ve always seen the social, interpersonal connected to the biological.”
Dr. Rao was awarded $25,000 to estimate the prevalence of depressive and PTSD symptoms in pregnant women in South India and examine the effects of these symptoms on birth outcomes. Dr. Rao’s team also conducted interviews with key informants to gather information on how therapeutic techniques could be adapted to be culturally relevant.
The study was conducted at two different hospitals, and involved 150 Indian women over the age of 18 who were in their second or third trimester of pregnancy. All of the women were married, had some education, and about nine percent were employed outside of the home. Twenty-one percent of them reported clinically significant depressive symptoms and PTSD.
Her findings, to be published in an upcoming paper entitled The Impact of Domestic Violence and Depressive Symptoms on Preterm Birth in South India, showed that both psychological abuse and clinically significant depressive symptoms were associated with preterm birth. In addition, her team found that maternal depressive symptoms and experience of psychological abuse were strongly associated with each other. During the study, female research assistants asked questions about home situations that could shed light on whether or not the women had suffered abuse. Several women had.
Dr. Rao points out that current policy initiatives focus predominantly on physical abuse, and psychological abuse may be overlooked through these initiatives. She emphasized the need for future research to focus on understanding the psychosocial causes of preterm birth to better target interventions and improve maternal child health in limited resource settings.
August 11, 2015
WACh Research Racks Up Awards at IAS Conference
Categories: Awards, Research, Talks and Events
Tags: AIDS Conference
In late July, Global WACh sent several team members to Vancouver for the 8th Annual IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis Treatment and Prevention. Our researchers presented posters highlighting woman, adolescent, and child health and Kristjana Asbjornstottir, Irene Njuguna, and Keshet Ronen took home awards recognizing their excellent work!
Kristjana received the The IAS/ANRS Lange-Van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators for her project Immune Activation ped HIV.
- Kristjana with Dr. Beyrer from Johns Hopkins and Dr. Delfraissy from ANRS France who presented her with the award
Kristjana shared her thoughts about winning this prestigious award saying:
Giving a talk at IAS was an incredible opportunity in itself, and having our work recognized through the Young Investigator award on top of that is an enormous honor. I think it highlights the particular attention that was paid to pediatric research at the conference this year. Lots of UW research was featured in various tracks and sessions.
Irene Njuguna was the recipient of the CIPHER Award (Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research) which is granted to provide funding for research that addresses priority gaps in pediatric HIV. Without treatment, 50% of HIV infected children will die by the age of two so early diagnosis and treatment is crucial.
The Financial Incentives to increase HIV testing in children (FIT) study that Irene and the team have been working with wants to test to see if small financial incentives will increase HIV testing for children of HIV infected adults who are already in care.
This award is a result of hard work from the team, and I feel honored to be part of this team. This would not be possible without the excellent mentorship from Grace John-Stewart, Jennifer Slyker and Anjuli Wagner.
All of our Global WACh members gave poster presentations for the conference, and Keshet Ronen won an award for Best Poster for her research on Lower ANC Attendance and PMTCT Uptake in Adolescent versus Adult Pregnant Women in Kenya.
Keshet Ronen and her award winning poster
Let’s hear it for our award winning Global WACh team!
July 27, 2015
Small Changes With Big Impact – Announcing the Global WACh Small Change Awards
Categories: Awards
Tags: Small Change
The University of Washington Center for Integrated Health of Women, Children and Adolescents (Global WACh) aims to contribute to scientific discoveries, develop and nurture future leaders in science and foster collaborative approaches to improving the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.
As part of these commitments, Global WACh offers a Resource Awards to support efforts to improve the patient experience in LMIC by improving clinical care, patient satisfaction, workforce empowerment, and health service delivery for programs benefitting the health of women, adolescents and children.
For more information, and to download the current RFA, please visit our Small Change Awards page.
We’re looking forward to receiving your proposals!
July 10, 2015
2015 Global WACh – Coulter Foundation Seed Grant Awarded
Tags: bioengineering, coulter seed grant
The Coulter Project and Global WACh teamed up again to offer a seed grant award. The Bioengineering Solutions Seed Grant supports collaborative translational research in biomedical engineering addressing the clinical needs of women, adolescents, and children.
This year we received a fantastic pool of innovative applications and ultimately awarded funds to Drs. Wendy Thomas (UW Bioengineering) and Anthony Roche (Anesthesiology). Their project titled An Affordable, Portable Drawover Vaporizer was selected for funding by a team of expert reviewers and we couldn’t be more excited!
Wendy Thomas, PhD
The project aims to develop an affordable and easily portable anesthetic delivery device to help in low resource settings, particularly in Uganda. Most anesthetic delivery devices are bulky, difficult to transport, not sufficiently durable, expensive, or can’t function without reliable power sources making them an unrealistic solution in low resource settings.
PI Wendy Thomas says she volunteered to help with Bioengineers Without Borders (BWB) when they asked her to suggest a bioengineering co-advisor for the project.
They are hard-working, passionate about learning and helping people, and very capable. I want to particularly compliment David Peeler and Eric Swanson, the graduate BWB team members who put the most work into writing this proposal.
Anthony Roche, MBChB, FRCA, MMed
This project is hoping to use a simplified design that requires no additional power source other than the patient’s breathing to draw anesthetic from the device.
PI Anthony Roche also expressed his thanks to Global WACh and The Coulter Foundation for the support of the project.
I am constantly inspired by the vision and passion of our team, as well as their dedication and tireless effort to improve healthcare in low resource settings.
The funding process served as a great catalyst for their team. They have been working hard for months solidifying design constraints, identifying key engineering questions, and collaborating with experts at PATH. “All of this was done before the award was even made!” Dr. Roche says.
A few of the Bioengineers Without Borders team
Eric Swanson, a 3rd year Bioengineering PhD student and team leader for BWB’s Anesthesia Device Team says the team is comprised entirely of undergraduate and graduate students.
My hope is that this funding will not only enable us to take steps towards developing a device that could have a significant impact on an important global health problem, but that it will also increase awareness of the Bioengineers Without Borders student group and promote future funding and collaboration opportunities for our other projects.
Congratulations are in order for this dynamic team! Global WACh is proud to support such innovative work and can’t wait to share the results with you.
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