scholarly journals Supporting Multidisciplinary Analytic Skills: An Innovative Training Platform for Capacity Building

Author(s):  
Ann Greenwood ◽  
Maxine Reitsma

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo serve the emerging multidisciplinary skills and capacity building needs of Population Health Researchers within a rapidly diversifying field. Population Health Research is inherently interdisciplinary, multifaceted and firmly rooted in the evolving connections between place, time and related socioeconomic processes. To excel in this rapidly diversifying field, individuals require a broad range of multidisciplinary skills. Supporting the development of these skills through innovative training platforms is one key way to build capacity for emerging 21 Century researchers and health professionals. ApproachEstablishment of an innovative research training platform that supports skill development in a timely, collaborative and practiced based environment. The growing importance of data analytics and spatial thinking as it pertains to the worlds growing health concerns, be they social, physical or environmental – demands approaches that serve real time and remotely accessed, exploratory and highly collaborative research environments. A case example will be provided concerning a tri-party training platform that is serving the multidisciplinary skill requirements of new and mid-career population health professionals. Designed in collaboration with a tri-university research platform, the innovative, practice-based training environment both mirrors and supports many of the day to day skill development needs of health and social science researchers. ResultsThe multidisciplinary focus of this specialized training platform is successfully addressing the skill development needs of a diverse cross section of health research professionals. Trainees are bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with their online colleagues, supporting a rich, practice based education and skills development environment. Those enrolled in the program possess backgrounds ranging from Population and Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics and Sociology to Medicine to Psychology, Geography, Biostatistics and International Health. ConclusionProviding timely, practical, hands-on analytic skills training is critical to building the capacity of new and mid-career researchers and health professionals. Direct application of these new skills is an essential outcome and best measure of success. We are listening to our trainees and learning as we grow.Read what trainees are saying about our certificate courses.https://www.popdata.bc.ca/etu/testimonials/PHDA

Author(s):  
Ann Greenwood

OverviewPopulation Health Research is inherently interdisciplinary, multifaceted and firmly rooted in the evolving connections between place, time and related socioeconomic processes. To excel in this rapidly diversifying field, individuals require a broad range of multidisciplinary skills gained through applied, collaborative and real world learning environments. ObjectiveTo serve the emerging multidisciplinary skills and capacity building needs of Population Health Researchers within a rapidly diversifying field. ApproachEstablishment of an innovative research training platform that supports skill development in an accessible, collaborative and applied learning environment. Designed in collaboration with a multi-university research platform, this fully online practice-based training environment both mirrors and supports many of the day to day skill development needs of health and social science researchers. ResultsNow in its 6th year of delivery, the multidisciplinary focus of this specialized training platform is successfully addressing the skill development needs of a diverse cross section of health research professionals. Trainees are bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with their online colleagues, supporting a rich, practice based education and skills development environment. Those enrolled in the program possess backgrounds ranging from Population and Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics and Sociology to Medicine to Psychology, Geography, Biostatistics and International Health. Graduates of the program are gaining skills that benefit their research and careers. Lessons learned with respect to the development of the training platform and capacity building skills achieved by program graduates will be outlined. Conclusion/ImplicationsProviding timely, practical, hands-on analytic skills training is critical to building the capacity of new and mid-career researchers and health professionals. Direct application of these new skills is an essential outcome and best measure of success. We are listening to our trainees and learning as we grow. Learn more here.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Schneider ◽  
K. Sorsdahl ◽  
R. Mayston ◽  
J. Ahrens ◽  
D. Chibanda ◽  
...  

BackgroundThere remains a large disparity in the quantity, quality and impact of mental health research carried out in sub-Saharan Africa, relative to both the burden and the amount of research carried out in other regions. We lack evidence on the capacity-building activities that are effective in achieving desired aims and appropriate methodologies for evaluating success.MethodsAFFIRM was an NIMH-funded hub project including a capacity-building program with three components open to participants across six countries: (a) fellowships for an M.Phil. program; (b) funding for Ph.D. students conducting research nested within AFFIRM trials; (c) short courses in specialist research skills. We present findings on progression and outputs from the M.Phil. and Ph.D. programs, self-perceived impact of short courses, qualitative data on student experience, and reflections on experiences and lessons learnt from AFFIRM consortium members.ResultsAFFIRM delivered funded research training opportunities to 25 mental health professionals, 90 researchers and five Ph.D. students across 6 countries over a period of 5 years. A number of challenges were identified and suggestions for improving the capacity-building activities explored.ConclusionsHaving protected time for research is a barrier to carrying out research activities for busy clinicians. Funders could support sustainability of capacity-building initiatives through funds for travel and study leave. Adoption of a train-the-trainers model for specialist skills training and strategies for improving the rigor of evaluation of capacity-building activities should be considered.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Igumbor ◽  
Edna N Bosire ◽  
Tariro Basera ◽  
Uwizeye Dieudonn ◽  
Funke Fayehun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities and four research centres to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda. Methods: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.Results: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. All the publications considered in this paper had authors affiliated with African universities, 90% of the publications had an African university first author and 41% of the papers have CARTA fellows as the first author. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%). Conclusions and recommendations: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa’s public and population priority areas. Even while low in number, fellows are publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Igumbor ◽  
Edna N Bosire ◽  
Tariro Basera ◽  
Uwizeye Dieudonn ◽  
Funke Fayehun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Strengthening research capacity in African academic institutions is crucial to address the ever-increasing health challenges across the continent. Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). Methods: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.Results: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%). About 70% of the articles were published by fellows from or affiliated to universities in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Conclusions and recommendations: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa’s public and population priority areas. However, even while low in number, fellows are nonetheless publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases, and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Igumbor ◽  
Edna N Bosire ◽  
Tariro Basera ◽  
Uwizeye Dieudonn ◽  
Funke Fayehun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities and four research centres to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda. Methods: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.Results: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. All the publications considered in this paper had authors affiliated with African universities, 90% of the publications had an African university first author and 41% of the papers have CARTA fellows as the first author. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%). Conclusions: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa’s public and population priority areas. Even while low in number, fellows are publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.


Author(s):  
Anshu Yadav

There is a huge focus on building enabling capabilities in the potential workforce to make them employable all over the world. The challenges surrounding the current education system in India have given way to the production of unemployable youth which is endangering the growth and sustainability of the economy. The education sector in India has been under criticism for not being skill oriented. In this light, the current study presents an overview of the skill development environment existing in educational institutions in the country and identifies the challenges that produce skill gap. The study mainly relies on qualitative methodology and draws support from other economies of the world. Global Skill development models have been considered to address the skill development challenges. It suggests the development of versatile vocational skills and strong competence in today's youth, accompanied with the continuous renewal of competencies.


Author(s):  
Yuwadee Wittayapun ◽  
Jiraphat Nawarat

The purpose of this study was to determine the need for research training among nurses and health professionals in a rural province of Thailand and to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions designed to address the identified factors. This two-phase study used a cross-sectional design with one-group pre- and post-tests. In phase I, 149 subjects from 16 subdistrict health promoting hospitals and one district hospital were sampled. As an intervention, an academic-practice team approach to research capacity building was designed. Twenty-four volunteers completed a three-time point assessment of intervention in phase II. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires and analyzed using bivariate and multivariate statistics. Phase-I results indicated that 33.6% of subjects were involved in the research implementation. They had a moderate perception of research barriers and capacity. The research experiences, capacity, and barriers associated with the research implementation were described in detail (p < 0.05). The only positive predictor of research implementation was research training (p < 0.001). The intervention improved 24 participants’ competency (p < 0.05). Most of their research proposals had received ethics approval and a small grant. These findings highlight the efforts of innovative research capacity development and its impact on research and health practices among nurses and health professionals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. S5-S14
Author(s):  
Smita N Deshpande ◽  
Ravinder Singh ◽  
Triptish Bhatia ◽  
Gyan D Shah ◽  
Harpreet Singh ◽  
...  

Introduction: India’s National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) was initiated in 1982. In 2016, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) organized a Brainstorming Meeting on Prioritization of Mental Health Research. Recognizing the need for improving mental healthcare by building a cadre of mental health researchers based on focus areas of the NMHP, the ICMR organized a research training cum capacity building workshop in collaboration with the Cross-Fertilized Research Training Programme (funded by Fogarty International Centre, NIH, USA) in 2016. The workshop successfully prepared and reviewed 12 single and multicenter research proposals in priority areas of mental health research, which were awarded by the ICMR to middle- and junior-level research faculty and NGO. Methods: A National Coordination Unit (NCU) was set up to mentor investigators and to coordinate, train, and monitor the progress of their projects. Investigators were paired with senior mentors and also participated in four capacity building workshops focusing on proposal-writing, evaluation, and process tracking. Results: Following discussions with ICMR program officers, the NCU formulated standard operating procedures for ethical conduct, data collection, data sharing, progress reporting procedures, and manuscript preparation for all research projects. Regularly scheduled long-distance communications with investigators using social media and group communications were planned. NCU partnered with the ICMR Database Management Unit to build a shared online platform for real-time data entry and storage, and organized two project review meetings where it also coordinated with US faculty to organize public workshops on manuscript writing and qualitative research. Conclusions: The NCU will ensure timely completion of research projects, data entry and analysis, and reports and project publications. It is feasible to evaluate progress with the NMHP through coordinated multisite research that also enables research capacity building. Results from these projects will help in formulating policies by the Ministry of Health Government of India for achieving objectives of the NMHP.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Igumbor ◽  
Edna N Bosire ◽  
Tariro Basera ◽  
Uwizeye Dieudonn ◽  
Funke Fayehun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Since its inception in 2009, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) program has focused on strengthening the capacity of nine African universities and four research centres to produce skilled researchers and scholars able to improve public and population health on the continent. This study describes the alignment between CARTA-supported doctoral topics and publications with the priorities articulated by the African public and population health research agenda. Methods: We reviewed the output from CARTA PhD fellows between 2011 and 2018 to establish the volume and scope of the publications, and the degree to which the research focus coincided with the SDGs, World Bank, and African Development Bank research priority areas. We identified nine key priority areas into which the topics were classified.Results: In total, 140 CARTA fellows published 806 articles in peer-reviewed journals over the 8 years up to 2018. All the publications considered in this paper had authors affiliated with African universities, 90% of the publications had an African university first author and 41% of the papers have CARTA fellows as the first author. The publications are available in over 6300 online versions and have been cited in over 5500 other publications. About 69% of the published papers addressed the nine African public and population health research agenda and SDG priority areas. Infectious diseases topped the list of publications (26.8%), followed by the health system and policy research (17.6%), maternal and child health (14.7%), sexual and reproductive health (14.3%). Conclusions and recommendations: Investments by CARTA in supporting doctoral studies provides fellows with sufficient training and skills to publish their research in fields of public and population health. The number of publications is understandably uneven across Africa’s public and population priority areas. Even while low in number, fellows are publishing in areas such as non-communicable disease, health financing, neglected tropical diseases and environmental health. Violence and injury is perhaps underrepresented. There is need to keep developing research capacity in partner institutions with low research output by training more PhDs in such institutions and by facilitating enabling environments for research.


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