Since its establishment in 1991, the JCRC has established an outstanding track record of providing quality training to both local and international trainees. The JCRC has successfully accomplished several collaborative research training programs. Here we share with you key outstanding training programs with remarkable achievements.
The FIC/NIH funded International Clinical Operational and Health Services Research Training (ICOHRTA HIV/TB) collaboration grant number TW0006879 (2004 -2016),
The goal of ICOHRTA was to strengthen the national capacity to address the public health and scientific challenges of the evolving HIV/TB epidemic. The program trained PhD (n=6), Masters (n=64), and HIV/TB fellows (n=5) each conducted a research project on HIV or TB and made at least one publications (2 students had research projects on CVD in HIV). The ICOHRTA graduation rate was 98% and our carrier tracker shows that over 85% of former trainees are increasingly becoming successful independent scientists, educators, and public health practitioners in Uganda. A total of 873 trainees benefited from the short-term courses e.g. Grants writing and Grants Award Management, TB Laboratory Skills and External Quality Assessment (EQA); Ethics, Human Rights and the Law on HIV/AIDS; Dissemination and Implementation Science; Research administration; Research methods; Research Ethics and Good Clinical Practice; Manuscript Writing Skills; Responsible Conduct of Research; HIV/TB Collaborative; Mentorship etc. Several training materials were developed under ICOHRTA that are used in Uganda and beyond.
Over the team years , the ICOHRTA established new graduate programs namely: i) Ms in Health Services Research at Makerere University School of Public Health (MUSPH) ii) Curriculum for PhD in Health Services Research at MUSPH iii) MPH at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) UST iv). Msc in Psychiatry and MPH at Gulu University. The ICOHRTA published the “Mentors Manual for Health Sciences Training in Africa”. This manual was the first ever mentors manual that has been produced and published in Uganda. Through the ICOHRTA FIC D43 administrative supplement, an online course on Responsible Conduct Research (RCR) was developed and hosted on the JCRC website since Dec 2014 and over 421 trainees have benefited. Several programs in Uganda have adapt the ICOHRTA mentorship arrangements, faculty, execution of training courses, evaluation process (trainee career track approaches), trainee terms of references and handling trainee progress and remediation processes.
The Targeted HIV/AIDS And Laboratory Services (THALAS) training program
The main goal of the THALAS training program was is to: Improve skills of laboratory personnel in 19 THALAS supported regional referral and district hospitals to support provision of laboratory diagnostic tests for improved HIV/AIDS care and management. THALAS project had 6 objectives. Specifically, objective 5 of the THALAS project was to: Provide external quality assurance (EQA) coaching, mentoring and training for labs under SUSTAIN. The Project further organized training that specifically targets JCRC clinical teams to meet the demands of Deliverable 3: To provide quality care to clients in JCRC Kampala and Deliverable 4; Offer Lab services to SUSTAIN supported labs. THALAS provides training through adoption of the following strategies: i) Adopt MoH training tools to conduct training and where non-exist, develop required materials for national adoption. ii) Conduct facility assessments to establish staff capacity needs and existing competencies iii) Conduct training using various training methodologies to address capacity gaps. The following training materials were developed:
a). Laboratory training materials
ii). Review and development of Laboratory Technology Training Curricula for Certificate and Diploma courses. (ii).Support to Ministry of Health/ Central Public Health Laboratories to review and update the Laboratory Logistics curriculum used for roll out of the national logistics management training programs. (iii). Developed Laboratory mentorship training materials: Training curriculum, training manual and Mentors guide, all of which are used to support the national laboratory mentorship programs.
b). Community Based Health workers
Developed the Community Liason Volunteers (CLV) training package, materials that are used to support community based health workers like Village Health Teams (VHTs) to support ART adherence monitoring within the community. Materials available include: CLV training curriculum; CLV handbook; Community education grain sack Flip charts; Hand held Flip charts for one on one community based counseling.
The International Extramural Associates Research Development Award (IEARDA) funded by NICHD grant number G11HD065299-05, 2010 to 2015 at JCRC.
Selected JCRC staff together with 2 IEARDAs from other African institutions participated in the International Extramural Associates award virtual and residence training at NIH in 2010 prior to program implementation. The IEARDA aimed at building capacity of research administrators capable of addressing current and future NIH and other funding agencies’ grant policies and procedures. The program trained 345 persons on short courses including: publication and scientific writing; engaging the public in research, Implementation sciences, research administration, facility based data management and collaboratively developed other training materials. The program established research and grants structures at partner institutions i.e. Uganda Christian University and Ndejje University in Uganda. Through administrative supplement support from PEPFAR administrative supplement through Initiative on Research and Innovation Management (iRIM), IEARDA consortium in Africa developed interactive tutorials on innovative research administration. See link http://www.researchadministrationtools.org/index.html.