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Boston University
Center for International Health and Development (CIHD)
801 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd floor
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 414-1260
Fax: (617) 414-1261
Project Director: Jonathon Simon, D.Sc.
Assistant Director: Jill Costello
jcostell@bu.edu
http://sph.bu.edu/cihd/
The Boston University (BU) consortium, led by the Center for International Health and Development (CIHD), aims to deliver the highest quality applied clinical, behavioral, and economic research on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment interventions. BU-CIHD is a leader in innovative and applied HIV/AIDS research, evaluation, and technical assistance in developing and transitional countries, with particular strengths in social and economic impacts, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs and antiretroviral drug (ARV) adherence.
In addition to its HIV/AIDS portfolio, CIHD has extensive experience in child survival, malaria, health financing, and pharmaceutical policy. Previous cooperative agreements with USAID include the Applied Diarrheal Diseases Research (ADDR) Project, the Applied Research on Child Health (ARCH) Project, and the Child and Family Applied Research Project (CFAR).
CIHD and its partners, Health and Development Africa (HDA), International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), were awarded a task order under Project SEARCH in August 2008 titled Orphans and Vulnerable Children Comprehensive Action Research (OVC-CARE). It aims to improve coverage and quality of OVC programs in developing countries through applied research on PEPFAR programmed activities. Orphans and vulnerable children may be at an increased risk for HIV infection, psychological distress, malnutrition, economic hardships, exploitation, trafficking, and other vulnerabilities. OVC-CARE addresses these issues through rigorous, independent synthesis of experiences to date, and evaluation research that investigates program processes, outcomes, and impact indicators.
Goals of the OVC-CARE project are:
- To fill critical gaps in the OVC research evidence base in order to guide cost-effective programming of OVC resources.
- To guide alignment of OVC programs to complement national-level responses, frameworks, and Plans of Action for OVC.
- To identify strategies and approaches that will improve the coverage, quality, effectiveness, and impact of OVC programs.
Other current and recent BU-CIHD HIV/AIDS projects being conducted in China, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Namibia, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia include a major clinical trial of infant feeding strategies to reduce mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, including translation of the results into demonstration projects and PMTCT service delivery across 41 sites in Southern Province of Zambia; analyses of the economic benefits to employers of providing treatment to HIV-positive employees; evaluations of the costs, cost-effectiveness, and social and economic outcomes of treatment programs; evaluation of U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan/PEPFAR)-funded HIV prevention programs; and qualitative and quantitative research on ARV adherence, barriers and facilitators, and related interventions.
BU-CIHD leads a diverse consortium with a strong representation of developing country institutions, allowing greater flexibility and efficient use of resources in responding to individual task orders. In addition, BU will draw on a broad network of researchers within the University from other departments within the BU School of Public Health and from the BU School of Management, College of Arts and Sciences, and School of Communication. The BU consortium includes the following institutional partners:
- Health and Development Africa (PTY) Ltd. – PTY is a South African company providing client-focused technical assistance, primary research and data analysis, and health services project management in 17 African countries. Recent projects include a mass media HIV prevention, care, and support communication program; a randomized control trial to evaluate a multimedia intervention to encourage age-appropriate dialogue on HIV/AIDS between young children and their caregivers; multiple national household surveys; and development of management information systems for voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS services.
- INCLEN – INCLEN is a unique global network of clinical epidemiologists, biostatisticians, social scientists, and other health professionals affiliated with key academic health care institutions, who conduct collaborative, interdisciplinary research on high-priority health problems. INCLEN consists of 81 clinical epidemiology units organized into seven semi-autonomous regional networks spanning the globe. Program activities have included studies on infectious diseases, antimicrobial and disease surveillance, child and maternal health, and reproductive health. IndiaCLEN, the regional network for India, set up a nationwide Program Evaluation Network (IPEN) of 134 institutions, conducting methodologically and analytically rigorous public health program evaluations.
- PharmAccess Foundation (PAF) – PAF is a Dutch nonprofit specializing in HIV/AIDS workplace initiatives, capacity building projects, and subsidized health insurance and treatment programs through innovative public-private partnerships. PAF coordinates projects in 31 countries, primarily in Africa, also has experience in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. PAF customizes instruments for the initiation, implementation, and management of HIV/AIDS treatment programs, including medical/laboratory assessments and audits, cost calculations, biomedical quality assurance, procurement, AIDS policy development, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
- UCLA Program in Global Health – The program is a leader in AIDS prevention and policy research, specializing in health communications, large community-randomized trails, and treatment and prevention research for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). UCLA’s extensive collaborations with developing country institutions are based in China, Peru, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and Zimbabwe.
- Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) – UPCH is a leading medical training, research, and academic institution and the main clinical and academic center for HIV/AIDS care in Peru. UPCH’s Unit of Community Sexual Health Studies (UCSHS) consists of experts in clinical and community trials for the prevention and treatment of STIs and HIV/AIDS. The unit has a broad range of experience, including information diffusion of intervention evaluations; national needs assessments for the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART); development of assessment methodologies and baseline indicators for the Global Fund; and antiretroviral treatment (ART) program outcome evaluations.
- Wits Health Consortium, University of the Witwatersrand – This South African research institution comprises 90 divisions with more than 230 professional researchers and 740 staff. Two key divisions in this consortium are the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU), a leader in ARV rollout and in randomized clinical trials for ARV and AIDS treatment strategies; and the Health Economics Research Office (HERO), specializing in applied research on the economic and social impacts of the AIDS epidemic. Combined, they provide leadership for cost-effectiveness research, ARV scale-up, service delivery evaluations, patient retention and adherence research, and international HIV treatment trials.
Individual Collaborators – The BU consortium includes a global team of more than 120 individual specialists in HIV/AIDS research, evaluation, and service delivery, who complement the geographic and technical expertise of the consortium’s institutional partners. These collaborators expand our consortium to China, Ethiopia, India, Ghana, Lesotho, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Awarded Task Order
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