News
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.
September 8, 2015
New Lecture Series: Breakfast with WACh with Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli
Categories: Talks and Events
Tags: adolescent health, Breakfast with WACh
Please join Global WACh as we welcome Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli MBBS, MSc of the World Health Organization as part of our new Breakfast with WACh lecture series.
Dr. Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli is an expert in adolescent sexual and reproductive health. He has worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva since 1993. His experience in generating knowledge and taking knowledge to action is global in scope and spans over 25 years. A key area of his work is research on effective ways of providing sexuality education in different social, cultural and economic contexts, and then using these research findings to strengthen sexuality education programs in low and middle income countries.
October 8th 9-10 AM University of Washington, South Campus Center Room 354
Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Why is there so much discomfort about it? What are the implications for public health and health care professionals?
For more information please see this flyer.
For the full filmed presentation, please visit this link.
September 3, 2015
Our Lifecycle Approach to Research
Categories: Research
Tags: Lifecycle Lens
At Global WACh our mission is to make scientific discoveries, cultivate leaders, and bridge disciplines to advance the tightly connected health of women, adolescents, and children. Global WACh approaches research, activities, and programs through a “lifecycle lens” that views target populations as interconnected instead of independent groups.
What exactly do we mean by “lifecycle lens?” We sat down with Global WACh Director, Grace John-Stewart, MD, PhD, MPH to explain what it is and why it is important in the global health context.
Historically, global health research focused on women, adolescents, and children separately, or examined the maternal-child relationship. Within the last decade, however, adolescents have emerged as a critical population to understand and engage in order to improve health worldwide. With the proliferation of adolescent health research and programs, Global WACh uses a lifecycle lens in which research explores potential impact and benefits throughout the lifecycle, from pregnancy, to neonate, to child, to adolescent, to next generation reproductive health.
Dr. John-Stewart’s research career in mother-to-child HIV transmission involved linking pediatricians with obstetricians and caring for mothers and infants together, with studies to optimize outcomes in both. The questions surrounding how to prevent women and children from getting HIV led to recognizing adolescence as a critical area on which to focus. Adolescents in the pre-reproductive phase need to be incorporated into the lifecycle model – prevention and treatment of children can improve adolescent health and adolescent engagement can improve health in their later life and in the next generation.
Grace John-Stewart MD, PhD Global WACh Center Director
“If we do something for women, could we have benefits for them that also benefit their children? If we do something for children, are there ways in which we benefit them moving into adolescence and later life? We’re trying to think about it together.”
Global WACh has three main core focuses of research: Infectious Diseases, Healthy Growth and Development, and Family Planning. All of these areas have elements that directly relate to the lifecycle. For example, healthy, planned pregnancies lead to healthy babies who, when provided with adequate infant nutrition and other interventions, can experience better health outcomes later in life.
Dr. John-Stewart acknowledges it is a challenge incorporate all three populations into any one study, but Global WACh wants researchers to think about how their work in any one of these populations could be linked to the other populations as they develop and implement studies.
“You have to understand the implications of actions in one area for the other, and if you can articulate that it’s good. If you’re doing a study on maternal depression, for example, not every time do you have to measure the child outcomes, but you may speculate or infer how this could benefit both the mother and child.”
You can read more about Global WACh’s mission, vision, and the work that we do here.
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 17, 2015
Global WACh at IAS 2015
Categories: Research, Talks and Events
Tags: AIDS Conference
UW Global Health and Global WACh will be attending the 8th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis Treatment & Prevention July 19th – 22nd, and we’re there in full force. Below are the oral presentations you don’t want to miss!
Monday at 11:00am Kristjana Asbjornsdottir will present Immune activation and pediatric HIV during the Growing up on ART session (Ballroom B)
Wednesday at 11:00am Anjuli Wagner will present Pediatric HIV testing during the Children and Adolescents Living with HIV session (Room 211-214)
Wednesday at 11:00am Keshet Ronen will present Adolescent PMTCT engagement during the Children and Adolescents Living with HIV session (Room 211-214)
Global Health and Global WACh team members will also be at the poster presentations, and we even have a few award winners in the bunch! Kristjana Asbjornsdottir will be honored with the IAS Young Investigator Award, Irene Njuguna will receive a CIPHER Award, Keshet Ronen will be getting a Best Poster award for her Pediatric IAS Meeting poster. Congratulations to all of them!
Click here for the full Global WACh IAS schedule and here for more information about IAS 2015.
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!
May 7, 2015
The Next Big Thing
Categories: Talks and Events
Tags: Certificate Program, students
It’s that time of year again for our 3rd annual “Next Big Thing” end-of-year event. The evening will be dedicated to highlighting the achievements of our scholars, and certificate students. We will start off in Foege auditorium with Dr. Judith Wasserheit speaking, followed by brief highlights from our Scholars and their various projects around the world. We will then move upstairs to Vista Café to enjoy some refreshments while looking at the Global WACh certificate student posters. Click here to read more about a few of the great students that will be presenting.
Here are the details!
Date: Wednesday, May 27th 2015
Place: UW Campus | William H. Foege Building | Foege Auditorium
Time:
5:30-6:30 p.m.
Presentations from:
Annie Hoopes, MD (WHO Scholar)
Emily Robinson and Kate Fizenmaier (SCOPE Scholars)
Our recent Seed Grant Awardees
Dr. Judith Wasserheit, Chair, Department of Global Health
6:30-7:30 p.m. – Light Reception & Student Posters in the Vista Cafe.
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.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Previous page Next page