Implementation Science
December 19, 2025
MIND study collaborators convene at UW to discuss future directions for childhood neurodevelopment research
Categories: Children, HIV and Co-Infections, Implementation Science, Research
MIND meeting collaborators at the University of Washington
Earlier this month, the Drug, microbiome, and immune determinants of birth and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with exposure to HIV infection (MIND) study collaborators based at the University of Washington convened for a day of knowledge sharing and discussions on projects focusing on adverse birth and neurodevelopmental outcomes in young children exposed to HIV but are uninfected (CHEU). (more…)
December 5, 2025
Researchers receive major grant to study impact of HIV/ART exposure on child neurodevelopment
Categories: Awards, HIV and Co-Infections, Implementation Science, Research
Multiple Principal Investigators Grace John-Stewart, Dalton Wamalwa, Kathleen Powis, and Andrew Prendergast leading the newly awarded U19 RISE Project
An international research team with Global WACh and partners in the U.S., Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana received a five-year long $36 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Health to better understand how HIV or antiretroviral (ART) exposure in utero influences child health outcomes, including neurodevelopment.
“Researching Interventions and Implementation Strategies to Evaluate the Health and Development of Children Affected by HIV (RISE)” is a large NIH-funded U19 Program to evaluate tools for screening children for neurodevelopmental delays and to identify interventions to optimize neurodevelopment among children with and without in utero HIV/ART exposure. The RISE Program includes three distinct research Projects and three Cores that provide shared resources, focusing on scientific administrative support, data management and analysis, and dissemination and stakeholder engagement, to facilitate the Projects.
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November 14, 2025
Dr. Arianna Means receives award to support facilities strengthen organizational culture of learning and improvement to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality
Categories: Awards, Gut Health and Child Survival, Implementation Science, Research
Principal Investigator Dr. Arianna Means; Co-Principal Investigators, Dr. John Kinuthia and Dr. Unger; Research Scientist Dr. Sarah Hicks
Congratulations to Dr. Arianna Means (Associate Professor, Global Health) for receiving a National Institutes of Health award for the AMANI (Accelerating Maternal And Neonatal survIval) trial that will test a practice facilitation package (of training materials, tools, and other resources) that could help stakeholders better understand the circumstances surrounding maternal and perinatal deaths, leading to improved quality of care and reduced mortality among mothers and infants. Study collaborators include Dr. John Kinuthia (Kenyatta National Hospital), Dr. Jennifer Unger (Brown University), and Dr. Sarah Hicks (Research Scientist, Global WACh).
AMANI builds on prior research identifying critical issues contributing to neonatal deaths during health facility delivery and identifying factors influencing guideline adherence, which led to the development of a practice facilitation package designed to strengthen facilities’ capacity to address care quality and implementation gaps. (more…)
September 12, 2025
Dr. Anjuli Wagner and Dr. John Kinuthia receive new award to understand how mobile health technology supports PrEP adherence
Categories: Awards, HIV, Implementation Science, Research
Congratulations to Drs. Anjuli Wagner (Associate Professor, UW Global Health) and John Kinuthia (Affiliate Associate Professor, UW Global Health; Obstetrician Gynecologist, Kenyatta National Hospital) for receiving a National Institutes of Health award to fund “Mechanisms of Action for mobile SMS PrEP adherence intervention (mWACH PrEP Mechanisms)” that aims to understand how digital health technologies work to support women to adhere to PrEP, a daily oral pill to prevent HIV. Effectiveness of the pill requires it to be taken daily, yet more than half of women discontinue within the first month. (more…)
June 6, 2025
Global WACh hosts annual Student Poster Symposium highlighting graduate student research
Categories: Certificate Program, HIV and Co-Infections, Implementation Science, PrEP, Research, Talks and Events
On Wednesday, June 4th, Global WACh hosted its annual Student Poster Symposium to highlight graduate student research affiliated with our center. Dozens of UW faculty, staff, students attended to learn about 17 students’ projects that fulfilled academic capstone and dissertation requirements, while providing opportunities to gain knowledge and build marketable skillsets in the field of maternal-child health.
The majority of presenters are enrolled in the Global WACh Graduate Certificate Program and are graduating in the 2025 academic year. The certificate program offers opportunities for additional learning about woman, adolescent, and child health topics through 12 credits of coursework and a 90-hour capstone. We wish these students the very best in their future endeavors as public health professionals.
Additional posters featured master and doctoral degree capstones and dissertations that led to major advancements in the scientific field and were featured at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) held in San Francisco in March. CROI is considered the world’s leading HIV research meeting that attracts thousands of researchers and clinicians from around the globe – and is a fantastic stage to showcase our emerging early-stage researchers.
See the full list of participating students and their poster titles below. Click here to view the photo gallery courtesy of the Department of Global Health Communications team. (more…)
December 2, 2024
Enterics for Global Health (EFGH) Phase C aims to assess policymaker preferences on Shigella vaccine characteristics
Categories: Awards, Gut Health and Child Survival, Implementation Science, Research
The Enterics for Global Health (EFGH): Shigella surveillance study was launched in 2022 and aims to establish incidence and consequences of Shigella diarrhea among children 6-35 months in Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Pakistan, Peru, and The Gambia and inform future Shigella vaccine trial planning. The study protocol has been published in a supplement in Open Forum of Infectious Diseases. During Phases A and B, the EFGH Consortium built a robust collaborative research infrastructure to facilitate shared scientific decision making and protocol standardization, and recently completed enrollment of 9,476 participants in August 2024.
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November 26, 2024
Dr. Arianna Means awarded grant to develop a researcher-friendly tool to improve translating evidence into practice
Categories: Awards, Implementation Science, Research
It is estimated that it takes an average of 17 years for 14% of clinical research to translate into practice. Many evidence-based interventions (EBIs), including biomedical interventions or practices that have demonstrated ability to improve health behaviors, health outcomes, or health-related environments, fail to translate into policy and practice.
There are several cultural, organizational, political and operational barriers that prevent effective uptake of EBIs. There may be serious constraints in policymakers’ preferences and priorities, the ability to supply the workforce training needed, and communication gaps between researchers and policymakers, among many other factors.
Dr. Arianna Means, Assistant Professor in UW Global Health, who is a trained epidemiologist and implementation scientist, is launching a new project in early 2025 to help close the gap between what scientists know can optimize health and what they do in practice (often referred to as “the know-do gap”) by identifying and addressing the barriers that slow or halt the uptake of EBIs. (more…)
August 1, 2024
Dr. Arianna Means lends expertise at NICHD staff training on best practices in implementation science research methods
Categories: Implementation Science
A key trait of Global WACh researchers is their willingness to lend their expertise and share what they know to support academic, scientific, and personal development of scientists, fellows, and students at all levels. Dr. Arianna Means, Assistant Professor in UW Global Health, who is a trained epidemiologist and implementation scientist, was one of three speakers invited to present on fundamentals of implementation science methods at an internal staff training at the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD). (more…)
May 20, 2024
New grant supports scaling up integrated PrEP delivery to Kenyan pregnant and postpartum women
Categories: Awards, HIV, Implementation Science, Research
Pregnancy is a high risk time for acquiring HIV. PrEP is a safe and effective prevention strategy to reduce women’s risk of acquiring HIV in pregnancy and postpartum and consequently vertical HIV transmission, improved health outcomes for both mother and child. In Kenya, this daily oral medication is being delivered in some regions during these life stages integrated into maternal and child (MCH) clinics, but scale-up has been sub-optimal.
Researchers from Global WACh and Kenyatta National Hospital have co-led implementation science studies focused on delivering integrated PrEP in routine MCH care, testing strategies to optimize delivery in western Kenyan counties. These represented the first and largest projects to deliver PrEP integrated into MCH clinics. Integrated PrEP delivery is now ready for scale up more broadly, which will require new implementation strategies to facilitate scale up. (more…)
April 8, 2024
Global WACh hosts Dr. Eleanor Namusoke Magongo for the Endowed DELV Lecture and Faculty Exchange in Global Health
Categories: HIV, Implementation Science, Research, Talks and Events
Dr. Eleanor Magongo delivered a keynote at UW on April 3, 2024. Credit: Kate Rankin
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