Global WACh

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June 9, 2023

TeAMS Toolkit Pilot Study aims to improve nutrition guidelines adherence for pediatric care in Kenya

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Since its launch in Spring 2022, the Team Approach to Malnutrition Services (TeAMS) Toolkit pilot study, funded by a UW Population Health Initiative grant, is progressing towards its goals to support healthcare workers in Kenya improve adherence to guidelines to care for pediatric patients with common illness that contribute to childhood mortality, such as malnutrition, pneumonia, diarrhea, and HIV. Although these guidelines have been available for decades, adherence to them remains suboptimal. Healthcare workers face common challenges including supply shortages, high workload burdens, and infrequent reinforcement. Existing strategies to improve quality of hospital care for children often require large investments in training and resources, making them difficult to implement at the facility level. Feasible implementation strategies to support healthcare workers and improve adherence to guidelines in routine care settings are urgently needed. (more…)


June 6, 2023

Global WACh Student Poster Symposium celebrates and highlights student achievements over the academic year

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Members of the UW global health community gathered at the poster symposium in the Hans Rosling Center.

On June 1st, Global WACh hosted its first Student Poster Symposium to showcase scientific results by affiliated graduate student researchers and celebrate their achievements over the academic year. This hour-long event provided an opportunity for current students to share project summaries related to academic requirements (e.g. dissertation, capstone) or as Research Assistants supporting ongoing projects. Some posters were created for the event, while others were previously featured at other scientific conferences and could be accessible to the UW global health community. Faculty, staff, and students attended to view the posters and chat with the students to learn more about their contributions that help advance Global WACh’s science in collaboration with partner organizations. (more…)


June 5, 2023

Global WACh Certificate students receive DGH travel fellowships

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Three students from the Global WACh Graduate Certificate Program are recipients of the 2023 Department of Global Health’s Funding for Fieldwork Fellowships. These coveted fellowships help support fieldwork experience for graduate students in global health. Meet the selected students, who are earning their MPH degrees, and read about their projects below.

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June 1, 2023

Global WACh PhD trainees defend dissertations

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This Spring Quarter, three doctoral students who have spent their PhD journeys with Global WACh, defended their dissertations leveraging research conducted in collaboration with partner institutions in Kenya. We are thankful for their contributions to advance our science and for the privilege to provide them with mentorship and training support. Congratulations to all! (more…)


May 19, 2023

Predoctoral researcher Tessa Concepcion receives award to support integration of long-acting PrEP methods into antenatal care in Kenya

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Tessa Concepcion, a second-year PhD student in the Global Health Implementation Science Program, recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to fund her predoctoral research with Global WACh at UW and Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in Kenya.

The three-year grant titled, “Planning for delivery of novel PrEP formulations to pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya,” leverages the ongoing mWACh-PrEP randomized trial (MPIs: John Kinuthia, KNH and Jillian Pintye, UW)—a SMS-based support intervention to enhance PrEP adherence during pregnancy through the postpartum period—to identify pregnant and postpartum women’s preferences for novel PrEP agents and identify early process indicators for implementing these options in MCH systems. This proposal was guided by the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment (EPIS) framework to answer questions related to implementation of LA-PrEP for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya. (more…)


April 3, 2023

Cross-functional collaboration offers qualitative data analysis software training for UW students

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Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie teaching students at the ATLAS.ti Workshop on March 3, 2023.

On March 3rd, a day-long ATLAS.ti workshop was hosted by the UW Qualitative Multi-Method Program (UW-QUAL) and UW Libraries’ Open Scholarship Commons (OSC) to teach students the fundamentals of ATLAS.ti, a popular qualitative data analysis software used in research, such as for an analysis of interviews or literature.  Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie, Senior Research Scientist with Global WACh in the Department of Global Health, led the workshop where students across campus attended to learn about the software’s research tools and features to improve their analysis skills.

Dr. Saadia Pekkanen, Founding Director of UW-QUAL and Professor of International Studies, supported the workshop as part of the program’s effort to provide education and training for qualitative and policy-relevant data analysis in universities, the private sector, and government.

Dr. Beima-Sofie and Dr. Pekkanen anticipate offering a follow-up workshop in the 2023 spring quarter. More information about this workshop and other qualitative training opportunities can be found on the UW-QUAL website at https://jsis.washington.edu/programs/qual.


January 30, 2023

Implementation science researchers share their findings at Conference on the Science of Dissemination & Implementation (D&I)

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Powerhouse UW presence at the D&I conference!

In December 2022, the 15th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) in Washington, DC convened several members of Global WACh’s Working in Implementation Science (WISE) Working Group, which include Global Health PhD Implementation Science track students, to share scientific findings and learn from other researchers. The D&I Conference is co-hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and AcademyHealth and helps realize the full potential of evidence to optimize health and health care by bridging the gap between research, practice, and policy. By outlining priorities in the field, the conference aims to ensure that evidence is used to inform decisions that will improve the health of individuals and communities. (more…)


November 1, 2021

Global WACh Graduate Certificate Student Sarah Hicks helps facilitate a virtual workshop to identify best PrEP delivery approaches in maternal-child health clinics in Kenya

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For the required 90-hour Global WACh Certificate capstone, Sarah Hicks, a 2nd year student in the Department of Epidemiology, wanted to use the opportunity to join a HIV research team to understand what goes on “behind the scenes” of a large international study and to build on quantitative data management and processing skills. The PrEP Optimized for Mothers: Efficient PrEP Integration in MCH Clinics (PrEPARE) study, led by investigators Dr. Anjuli Wagner and John Kinuthia from the Department of Global Health, was a natural fit. PrEPARE seeks to identify ways to improve the efficiency of PrEP integration within maternal-child health (MCH) clinics in Kenya through stakeholder engagement, identifying challenges to implementation in the health system, and piloting and evaluating optimized MCH-PrEP approaches that decrease health care workers’ workload and enhance client experiences. (more…)


August 3, 2021

Global WACh Certificate student Michelle Bulterys leverages global estimates for international forums focused on the health and wellbeing of HIV-exposed-uninfected children

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Before Michelle Bulterys enrolled in the Epidemiology PhD program and the Global WACh Graduate Certificate, she interned with the Strategic Information and Evaluation Department of the Joint United Nations AIDS Programme (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, where she learned about the complexities of gathering and validating country-level HIV estimates and synthesizing data into global reports to be used by clinicians, policy makers, and researchers around the world.  She gained strong mentorship from Dr. Mary Mahy, who leads the Epidemiology Team at UNAIDS.  Michelle and Dr. Mahy have continued to collaborate on various projects, including Michelle’s Certificate capstone—a 90-hour project designed for students to gain hands-on experience in the field of global health.
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July 14, 2021

Research Assistant Anna Larsen virtually presents analysis of depressive screening tools among postpartum Kenyan women

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Global WACh Research Assistant Anna Larsen (2nd row, left) presented research findings at the Society for Epidemiologic Research in June 2021.

 

Anna Larsen, Global WACh Research Assistant and PhD Candidate in the Department of Epidemiology, participated in a panel entitled, “Mental Health: Recent trends, advances in measurement, and racial/ethnic patterns” at the 2021 Society for Epidemiologic Research on June 23, 2021.

Her presentation entitled, “Epidemiologic evaluation of three depression screening tools among postpartum Kenyan women,” highlighted results from a comparative analysis of three depressive symptom screening tools used in the PrEP Implementation for Mothers in Antenatal Care (PrIMA) study.  The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CESD-10], Patient Health Questionnaire-2 [PHQ-2], and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale [EPDS] were utilized by the study team to screen for depressive symptoms among postpartum Kenyan women. (more…)



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