TY - JOUR
T1 - Group mentorship model to enhance the efficiency and productivity of PHD research training in Sub-Saharan Africa
AU - Manabe, Yukari C.
AU - Nambooze, Harriet
AU - Okello, Elialilia S.
AU - Kamya, Moses R.
AU - Katabira, Elly T.
AU - Ssinabulya, Isaac
AU - Kaddumukasa, Mark
AU - Nabunnya, Yvonne
AU - Bollinger, Robert C.
AU - Sewankambo, Nelson K.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank all of the PhD mentors and students. Support for this program was provided by the MEPI Programmatic and linked grants (R24TW008886, R24TW008861, 4R25N5080968) from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, Health Resources and Services Administration, the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. YCM also receives salary support from the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health HIV co-infections in Uganda: TB, Cryptococcus, and viral hepatitis (D43TW009771). NKS and HN receive supplementary salary support from the DELTAS Africa Initiative grant # DEL-15-011 to THRiVE-2. The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences’ (AAS) Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and is supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), with funding from the Wellcome Trust grant # 107742/Z/15/Z and the UK government.
Funding Information:
In order to build sustainable research capacity strengthening in LICs, a recent approach increased funding to academic universities or to establish regional or national centers of research excellence often linked to these academic centers. Training of individuals is most effective within a resourced context [8]. The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is an innovative, ambitious, and potentially transformative five-year program established by the US Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA) to increase the number of well-trained doctors in Africa [9]. The original goal of MEPI was to increase the number of doctors particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS to meet critical human resource needs in sub-Saharan African countries where poverty, illiteracy, negative cultural practices, and political instability synergize to increase disparities in health care access and quality both within and between nations [10]. MEPI-MESAU (Medical Education for Equitable Services for All Ugandans) is a five-school consortium in Uganda. Within MEPI MESAU, both Johns Hopkins University and Case Western Reserve University were international partners in the consortium in the area of research capacity building.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Introduction: High quality PhD training in sub-Saharan Africa is important to strengthen research evidence to advance development and health. Training a critical mass of independent investigators capable of original scientific research requires strong mentorship, research environments, and international networks. We sought to iteratively improve a PhD training model in Uganda through systems capacity building. Methods: PhD students were selected through a rigorous competitive application and selection process, which included a written proposal and a face-to-face panel interview. The program provided administrative support, paid tuition fees, tools (space, equipment, research money), skills (short research courses on study design, biostatistics, manuscript and grant writing), and infrastructure (finance, grants management support, and lab infrastructure). Guidance to identify local and international mentorship was also provided in addition to two to three group meetings per year where data was presented and progress assessed by the program leaders in addition to available local mentors. Results: Seventeen PhD students were selected, and fifteen will complete training through the MEPI-MESAU program. To date, 60% have completed, including 2 students who started 2 years into the program. So far, 169 publications have been published in the peer-reviewed literature. Our PhD students have supervised and mentored 65 Master’s students, which illustrates the cascade effect of PhD training on the academic medical school environment. Conclusions: The systems capacity building approach to PhD training is an efficient and productive training model that allowed strong outputs at lower cost and with relatively few additional mentors to rapidly achieve a critical mass of independent scientists able to conduct original research and mentor others.
AB - Introduction: High quality PhD training in sub-Saharan Africa is important to strengthen research evidence to advance development and health. Training a critical mass of independent investigators capable of original scientific research requires strong mentorship, research environments, and international networks. We sought to iteratively improve a PhD training model in Uganda through systems capacity building. Methods: PhD students were selected through a rigorous competitive application and selection process, which included a written proposal and a face-to-face panel interview. The program provided administrative support, paid tuition fees, tools (space, equipment, research money), skills (short research courses on study design, biostatistics, manuscript and grant writing), and infrastructure (finance, grants management support, and lab infrastructure). Guidance to identify local and international mentorship was also provided in addition to two to three group meetings per year where data was presented and progress assessed by the program leaders in addition to available local mentors. Results: Seventeen PhD students were selected, and fifteen will complete training through the MEPI-MESAU program. To date, 60% have completed, including 2 students who started 2 years into the program. So far, 169 publications have been published in the peer-reviewed literature. Our PhD students have supervised and mentored 65 Master’s students, which illustrates the cascade effect of PhD training on the academic medical school environment. Conclusions: The systems capacity building approach to PhD training is an efficient and productive training model that allowed strong outputs at lower cost and with relatively few additional mentors to rapidly achieve a critical mass of independent scientists able to conduct original research and mentor others.
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U2 - 10.29024/aogh.25
DO - 10.29024/aogh.25
M3 - Article
C2 - 30873808
AN - SCOPUS:85054049110
SN - 2214-9996
VL - 84
SP - 170
EP - 175
JO - Annals of global health
JF - Annals of global health
IS - 1
ER -