Research
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.
May 20, 2015
Global WACh In Focus: Patricia Pavlinac
Tags: WACh faculty
Patricia Pavlinac, PhD, was trained in epidemiology and began working within the Department of Global Health on tuberculosis-related research projects in January 2010. Through coordinating a diarrheal and febrile illness surveillance study for Judd Walson, she developed a dissertation to determine the potential etiologies of acute diarrhea among Kenyan children, to determine how these etiologies associate with HIV-infection and HIV-exposure, and to evaluate the appropriateness of current international diarrhea management guidelines in correctly indicating antibiotics. She found that specific enteric pathogens, namely enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Cryptosporidium are associated with HIV-infection and HIV-exposure, respectively, a finding that builds upon recent evidence that these two pathogens are independently associated with mortality in children with diarrhea. Additionally, she found that the indications for antibiotic use in current World Health Organization management guidelines miss most treatable bacteria. To give a bit of context to her research, over 3% of children under 5 years of age who present to a Western Kenya health facility with a moderate to severe form of diarrhea will die within the subsequent 60-days, despite receiving oral rehydration solution and zinc, a risk of death 5-times higher than a healthy similarly aged child living in the same community. This knowledge, combined with her research in understanding the role of host and management factors in diarrheal disease consequences, have inspired her to focus her career on pediatric diarrheal disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Patricia is passionate about developing evidence for the management of diarrheal illness in pediatric populations. She is conducting an evidence review of diarrhea management strategies for pediatric populations in resource-limited settings, an endeavor commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and presented at the World Health Organization in October 2014. The most rewarding thing about this area of work, she says, is that there is a huge renewed interest in diarrheal disease in the global research community. This priority settings comes at the heels of the recently published Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS), which highlighted the continued risk of death associated with diarrheal illness and challenged existing thinking about the major causes of diarrheal disease in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
It feels exciting and I feel really lucky to have found this field at this stage.
Patricia is especially interested in the consequences of diarrhea that extend beyond the acute period. Research is showing that even though a child may survive the acute consequences of diarrhea, namely dehydration, many go on to die soon after. She is hoping to design interventions that target this post-acute diarrhea phase and prevent the downward health spiral that occurs after a significant episode of diarrhea.
Patricia is confident in the possibility of a real impact, and there are funders, researchers, and institutions that are coming together to support these efforts. We are excited to have such a dynamic and passionate researcher in the Global WACh family!
March 23, 2015
Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli of WHO Presents at Global WACh
Categories: Research, Talks and Events
Tags: adolescent health
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This week we were pleased to have Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli here at Global WACh for an amazing presentation on adolescent and sexual reproductive health.
Since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 there have been tremendous changes made throughout the world in which adolescents live. Lowered infant mortality, a decrease in poverty, and better access to clean drinking water are just a few examples of things that have improved. Progress where it comes to adolescent sexual health however hasn’t been quite as successful, and often inadequate commitment, discomfort, or limited funding and resources stand in the way of such changes.
“When you have huge fires burning like childhood or maternal mortality, or HIV, adolescent sexual and reproductive health is talked about as one of the many priorities but is not given the attention it needs.”
Dr. Chandra-Mouli works in the World Health Organization’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research and seeks to create evidence based policy changes and programs. You can view his entire presentation below.
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February 10, 2015
The CATCH Study Focuses on the Children Who Miss Diagnosis
Categories: Research
Tags: CATCH, HIV, Pediatrics, PMTCT
The Kenya Pediatric Studies (KPS) team has been working hard on an important study called CATCH (Counseling and Testing for Children at Home). The CATCH study does just what the name says by “catching” children ages 12 and under who have fallen through the cracks in HIV diagnosis systems.
There are 3.3 million children in the world living with HIV. Half of HIV-infected children that go untreated will die by the age of two. There are some great programs in place to help prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding; but going through all the steps in these systems can be challenging, and medication is not always successful at preventing infection in babies.
Children born before PMTCT systems were widely available may not have had the chance to be tested. Additionally, if a mother finds out that she has HIV after her child has been born, there may be a missed opportunity to test her child. Many HIV-infected young children with a missed diagnosis are admitted to the hospital when they are already very sick and they don’t respond well to HIV treatment. The CATCH team aims to find children who may have missed diagnosis in PMTCT and get them the care they need before it’s too late.
CATCH is working to bridge the gap by approaching parents already in treatment and asking if they have any children who have not been tested and would like to have these children tested. CATCH offers testing both in clinics and at the home for those parents who prefer not to bring their children to the clinic. HIV-infected children are then linked to an HIV care clinic of choice, which ensures that children can live happy and healthy lives because of much needed care.
One issue that the CATCH team has run into is the issue of disclosure of HIV status to children. “Telling a child they have HIV is hard because you’re also potentially exposing the parents’ status as well. Kids also have a difficult time processing the news and will sometimes talk with friends, which can lead to possible stigma for the family,” says Anjuli Wagner, a PhD candidate in the Department of Epidemiology and member of the CATCH study team. Still, studies suggest that disclosure does seem to improve outcomes for infected children.
The CATCH study originally intended to focus on all children ages 0-18, but they discovered through discussions with bioethicists and their community advisory board that adolescents have a unique set of needs that are quite different from those of younger children. With adolescents, it’s challenging to decide who can give permission for the HIV test, who should receive the results of the test, and how best to support a young person who is gaining independence to cope with their diagnosis. To address these challenges inherent in adolescent HIV testing, another study called ‘DASH’ was created. DASH (Developing Adolescent Strategies for HIV testing) is focusing on voluntary counseling and testing for adolescents and is just another way the Kenya Pediatric Studies and Global WACh teams are making sure all the bases are covered for appropriate testing and treatment for children and adolescents.
CATCH currently has funding for 7 different sites in Nairobi and one in Western Kenya and we’re looking forward to seeing those results!
December 12, 2014
Global WACh’s Launch of Special Supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health
Categories: Research, Talks and Events
Tags: adolescent health, ICPD
There are 1.8 billion adolescents in the world today. That’s a tremendous number of youth that are at a crucial point of transition in their lives. 1.4 million adolescents die each year from causes such as early pregnancy, sexual violence, unsafe abortions, and HIV and other STIs. Yet adolescence is often overlooked in policy making, particularly in low income, high risk settings, and the global health of adolescents is not improving at the rate it should.
Last night Global WACh was proud to sponsor the launch of a Special Supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health. This marks the 20th anniversary of the the landmark Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
We had some truly amazing speakers on hand to have a conversation on ways of improving the health and well-being of adolescents globally. The speakers and a tremendous student panel shared their experiences and discussed how investing in adolescent friendly health services, comprehensive sex education, supportive environments, violence prevention, and youth participation can help adolescents transition into happy and healthy adults.
If you missed our livestream of the event, you can go to the following link and watch the recorded version. Thanks to all our speakers, students, and attendees that helped make this launch a great success!
August 13, 2014
Global WACh & Coulter Foundation 2014 Pilot Award
Categories: Research, students
Tags: bioengineering, pilot grants, tuberculosis
We are pleased to announce that the Global WACh/W.H. Coulter Foundation Seed Grant for 2014 has just been awarded to Drs. James Lai, Barry Lutz, and David Horne for their excellent proposal focused on point-of-care tuberculosis testing. The doctors were first approached with the idea by two students attending Global WACh’s course on Bioengineering Solutions to Improve the Health of Women, Adolescents and Children (WINTER | GH590). Nuttada Panpradist (Bio Engineering) and Diana Marangu (Global Health) were very excited, and had this to say about their involvement:
We are delighted to be the part of the team that has received the 2014 Coulter Seed Grant Award. Who could imagine that this all started from participating in the Bioengineering-Global WACh Seminar? We both have been very passionate about tackling the diagnostic dilemma in tuberculosis and were fortunately paired together to develop a solution to one of the many challenges in Global Health. Our mentors were very supportive and drove us to think critically about this challenge when we shared our idea with them. This experience has been a wonderful learning opportunity, from the process of grant writing and now seeing this idea being potentially translated into reality. The world needs a low-cost, accurate diagnostic tool for active TB that uses a non-invasive sample like urine. Hopefully, this technology can be truly implemented at all levels of healthcare and benefit patients with TB who need it the most.
Tuberculosis affects 9 million people with 1.7 million dying every year. Because most TB testing requires 6-8 weeks and a culture of sputum, it’s been difficult to implement methods of detection in limited resource settings. Many of the methods currently in use are not widely available, and delays in diagnosis can mean easier transmission of the disease. Being able to diagnose the disease using efficient, same day methods that use urine samples instead of sputum would be a great step in the right direction. That’s what Drs. Lai, Lutz, and Horne hope to do, so please join us in congratulating these great researchers and students who are helping to improve the health of women, children, and adolescents everywhere!
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