U Bremen Research Alliance’s Post

Postdoc fellowship opportunity! Accepting applications for Postdocs in #health and global development. 🌟 The program offers one- or two-year fellowships to new PhD recipients who have a demonstrated ability to generate high-quality, policy-relevant research on issues related to global development. Visas may be sponsored. 🌎 Deadline: Dec 1, 2024 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gJ9EckKp Fellows will pursue their own research agendas with mentorship from select Stanford faculty across different disciplines. Upon applying, fellows will be asked to select one prospective faculty mentor: 🌟 Jade Benjamin-Chung, Epidemiology & Population Health, School of Medicine . Topics of interest:  child growth, diarrheal disease/gastrointestinal infections, malaria, and climate and health. 🌟 Pascal Geldsetzer, Primary Care and Population Health, School of Medicine . Topics of interest:  the use of machine learning in satellite imagery and other publicly accessible geotagged data sources to monitor health and health service coverage indicators.   🌟 A. Desiree LaBeaud, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine. Topics of interest:  global child health, climate change impacts on infectious diseases, vector-borne  disease epidemiology, arbovirology, community climate resilience, circular economies of waste.   🌟 Nathan Lo, Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine . Topics of interest:  infectious disease epidemiology and modeling, policy-oriented public health modeling, neglected global infectious diseases (parasitic worm infections and typhoid fever), vaccination, predictive modeling. 🌟 Ivana Maric, Department of Pediatrics (Neonatology), School of Medicine Topics of interest:  developing machine learning and AI models for early prediction of adverse outcomes of pregnancy including preterm birth, preeclampsia, small-for-gestational age; machine learning analysis of pregnancy and neonatal outcomes from omics and electronic health records data, development of low-cost, point of care diagnostic tools that are applicable worldwide and especially in low-resource settings. 🌟 Dr. Christine Ngaruiya, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine. Topics of interest: addressing global disparities in non-communicable disease (NCD) outcomes, primarily in Africa; NCDs (e.g. hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health) or NCD risk factors (e.g. tobacco, alcohol), focusing on health equity in Africa; translation of public health interventions to policy and community-engaged projects. #globaldevelopment #fellowship #postdoc #postdoctoralfellowship #Stanford #health

❓ Does NIH Need a New Institute for Women's Health ❓   🚨 Breaking News in Women’s Health Research! A new report from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls out The National Institutes of Health of Health (#NIH) for decades of underfunding #WomensHealthResearch and recommends funding a new NIH institute to create meaningful improvements in women’s health and well-being. 🔑 Key Findings: - Despite an increase in NIH’s budget, women’s health research funding fell from 9.7% to 7.9% (2013 to 2023). - There has been inadequate attention to sex-based differences and limited research on conditions that exclusively affect women (#endometriosis, #PCOS), and disproportionality impact women (#lupus, #HeartDisease). - The current Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) is underfunded and lacks authority to enforce NIH policies. - The report demands interdisciplinary research efforts and stronger enforcement of policies on sex-based variables in studies. 🚀 Proposed Solutions: 1. Elevate ORWH into a grantmaking institute with $4 billion over 5 years. 2. Create a $11.4 billion Women’s Health Research Fund for innovative and cross-disciplinary studies. 3. Increase accountability and incentives for researchers to include sex differences in studies. 💪 This bold vision has drawn mixed reactions—some question the feasibility of a new institute vs. a more dedicated group in the existing structure. Many are concerned about the incoming administration’s vow to reduce spending and the number of NIH institutes. 💬 “Women’s health research has, for too long, been underfunded and overlooked, and as this report makes clear, there’s still a long way to go.” #WomensHealth #ResearchMatters #EndTheGap #NIH #HealthEquality   https://lnkd.in/g5ptCtAX

Trump's gag order on leaders who are building a safer, healthier, cleaner, fairer world – using evidence based practices If Trump’s gag on the NIH has not crossed your radar yet, I hope this message reaches you & moves you. He has shut down external communications & canceled vital meetings. Many of the leaders who I support are conducting community based & community driven research to reduce health disparities funded by NIH. You can’t talk about health without incorporating health inequalities. Health inequalities arise from where you live & the care you can access, the resources you have to access that care, the biases you face when you enter into the healthcare system, & the resources & access you have to follow prevention or treatment guidelines. Delayed, incomplete or inappropriate care leads to increased health problems & costs, & missed education or work opportunities, leading to a cycle of disparities. The costs of healthcare are massively driven by these inequalities. Prevention of these problems & costs starts in communities & there are many amazing programs that are being evaluated to ensure they work & that money is not wasted. This is what NIH researchers do. In addition to their roles as educators & administrators in their universities. In addition to the numerous volunteer roles they take on their communities. Researchers from marginalized communities have an even greater burden of the bias they face from students & colleagues, the disparities in the resources & opportunities they have, & the role modeling they are required to perform so that other marginalized researchers emerge. You can’t take DEI out of NIH. To the researchers whose work hangs in the balance, use all the tools we know work to manage stress: walk, meditate, volunteer, connect to others. To the researchers, educators, policy makers & members of the public who can stand up to this injustice, don’t focus too much on the scientific data. Bring stories of the people who you help. Stories like the 90 year old who wrote to me because our program had saved her life. Don’t just call your representatives, invite them out to the community to be with the people helping others in churches, schools, senior centers, jails, & clinics. Bring them to see the impact of their decisions on real people. We advocated successfully like this for our age friendly cities programs & not only got infrastructure change but also investments from local organizations. Don’t re-write your grants taking out all the parts related to disparities. The people who review these grants understand the urgent need for this research - believe in their ability to take a quiet stand in their ranking of projects. Start to talk to foundations & explore other sources of funding not tied to Trump. More than ever we will depend on philanthropy. We can learn from our research on successful advocacy to continue to build a safer, cleaner, healthier, fairer world. #NIH

The next A*STAR IHDP Seminars: Human Potential series is happening next Wednesday, 16 October, at 3pm! Held at the A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential (A*STAR IHDP), 30 Medical Drive, Brenner Centre for Molecular Medicine, the session will also be live-streamed via Zoom. Titled 'Reducing the Mental Health Treatment Gap in University Students through Epidemiology, Precision Medicine, and Digital Interventions: A Latin American Example', Dr Corina Benjet from the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz (INPRFM) will discuss how psychiatric epidemiology, precision medicine and digital interventions can help reduce the mental health treatment gap in university students. Besides providing data from the World Mental Health International College Student Survey Initiative (WMH-ICS), she will also share her experiences in Colombia and Mexico. Given the large unmet need for treatment, Dr Benjet will delve into the potential (and challenges) of digital mental health interventions to increase reach and scalability. And finally, she will present the results from a large clinical trial in eight Latin American universities to develop and test an individualised precision treatment rule for assigning students to a self-guided digital mental health intervention, a guided digital mental health intervention, or treatment as usual from a baseline epidemiological survey. All are welcome to join! No registration required if attending onsite and refreshments will be provided after the seminar. To join via Zoom, click on the following link to register: https://lnkd.in/gwTBubjh #ASTAR_IHDP #TheASTARIHDPSeminars #youth #mentalhealth #youthdevelopment #humandevelopment #resilience #seminar #webinar #humanpotential

Read the report!

I am thrilled to share that our latest research has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology! 🚀 The paper, titled ”The Relationship Between 10-year Changes in Cognitive Ability and Subsequent Mortality: Findings from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Trial”, dives into examining the association between cognitive trajectory and mortality, evaluating the effect of ACTIVE cognitive training (memory, reasoning, and speed of processing) on mortality risk. This work addressed the methodological issue of practice effect and potential bias could be introduced. I’m grateful to my co-authors and collaborators for their invaluable contributions to this work. Feel free to check it out and let me know your thoughts! 💡 Link to the article: https://lnkd.in/euzjcR_e #research #epidemiology #publichealth #science

Researcher spotlight 🌟 Dr Suleiman Abdullahi, grantee of the LRI Research capacity strengthening grant The LRI Research Capacity Strengthening Grant's inaugural call for proposals was launched in December 2022. After a competitive selection, two early-career researchers, including Dr. Suleiman, were awarded the grant for their impressive proposals. We invited Dr Suleiman to share insights from his experience with his project and grant. Here are his reflections: 📝About the project: Nigeria faces a significant public health challenge, contributing 25% to the global burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), with 2,393 new leprosy cases reported in 2023. The country suffers from a severe shortage of dermatologists, with just one for every 1.6 million people. To address this, solutions like integrated skin screening and task shifting to general health workers (GHWs) are needed, although GHWs receive limited dermatological training. This project is utilising 'collaborative co-design' to enhance educational collaboration among researchers, practitioners, affected individuals, and policymakers. Aligning with the WHO NTD roadmap and Global Leprosy Strategy, it aims to strengthen healthcare capacity and contribute to global health targets in Nigeria and beyond.   🚀About the LRI Research capacity strengthening grant: This grant pushes you beyond your comfort zone, enhancing not just research skills but also administrative, human resource management, logistics, and stakeholder engagement abilities. This program fosters networking and collaboration with the broader NTD NGO community. My mentors have been invaluable, offering support and encouragement throughout this journey. I am confident that this journey will open doors to the next step in becoming a leader who contributes to global NTD and leprosy strategies through research that shapes policy. I hope to get and implement much bigger grants on NTDs in the near future.   🎯How the grant has strengthened your capacity as an early-career researcher: I always remain excited about this opportunity. There are many aspiring researchers, especially in NTD high-endemic nations, just like me. However, lack of mentors and availability of funding are stumbling blocks. The LRI Research capacity strengthening grant is one of the few that has the potential to bridge this gap. I am confident that our work will have a significant contribution towards achieving global NTD/leprosy strategies in Nigeria. This grant will not only enhance my research capacity as the PI but also my future as a young researcher. I am already collaborating with a skin disease specialist who is passionate about research (as a research associate) in the implementation. This multiplier effect will be a huge success.   LRI wishes Dr Suleiman success in his project and development journey! 📢 The Research capacity strengthening grant returns this December! 📅 If you're an early-career researcher inspired by Dr Suleiman’s story, stay tuned.

UPCOMING HERC SEMINAR Going beyond Randomised Controlled Trials to assess treatment effect heterogeneity across target populations by Dr David G. Lugo Palacios Thurs 28 Nov, 13:00 h UK BST, onsite and online via Zoom Free event, requires registration: https://lnkd.in/e5YGcGTD Abstract: Methods have been developed for transporting evidence from Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to target populations. However, these approaches allow only for differences in characteristics observed in the RCT and real-world data (overt heterogeneity). These approaches do not recognise heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) according to unmeasured characteristics (essential heterogeneity). We use a target trial design and apply a local instrumental variable (LIV) approach to electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, and examine both forms of heterogeneity in assessing the comparative effectiveness of two second-line treatments for type 2 diabetes mellitus. We first estimate individualised estimates of HTE across the entire target population defined by applying eligibility criteria from national guidelines (n=13,240) within an overall target trial framework. We define a subpopulation who meet a published RCT’s eligibility criteria (‘RCT-eligible’, n=6,497), and a subpopulation who do not (‘RCT-ineligible’, n=6,743). We compare average treatment effects for pre-specified subgroups within the RCT-eligible subpopulation, the RCT-ineligible subpopulation, and within the overall target population. We find differences across these subpopulations in the magnitude of subgroup-level treatment effects, but that the direction of estimated effects is stable. Our results highlight that LIV methods can provide useful evidence about treatment effect heterogeneity including for those subpopulations excluded from RCTs. Bio: David Lugo Palacios is a health economist with expertise in policy evaluation and applied microeconometrics. He joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) as Assistant Professor in Health Economics in November 2020, where he co-leads the Policy Evaluation theme within the Global Health ECOnomics (GHECO) centre at LSHTM. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London and a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Health. David holds a BA in Economics from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), an MSc in Health Economics and Policy from the Barcelona School of Economics and a PhD in Health Economics from LSHTM. Prior to re-joining LSHTM, David was a Research Fellow in Health Economics at Imperial College London and a Research Associate in Health Economics at the University of Manchester. He also has professional experience in both the public and private sectors in Mexico, including at the Ministry of Finance of the Mexico City Government, the Ministry of Social Development and a consultancy firm specialising in public finance.

The UC Berkeley School of Public Health and Gilead Sciences have launched the Gilead-Berkeley Global Health Equity Initiative to address real-world public health issues. Funded at $4.5 million for three years, the program focuses on infectious and non-communicable diseases and aims to enhance research, data management, and executive education. The initiative has three components: collaborations in applied research, involving doctoral students and junior faculty at the Center for Global Health; collaborations in biostatistics and data management under the CTML - Center for Targeted Machine Learning and Causal Inference; and executive education. This initiative builds on Gilead’s previous $1.4 million donation for global health training. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dvXX6gUg #GileadSciences #UCBerkeley #BerkeleyPublicHealth #GlobalHealth

Yesterday at the UK COVID-19 Public Inquiry a question was asked about biomedical research in children and young people suffering from long COVID. A copy of the question and answer in the official transcript (page 137-138) is below: Q. You were asked all the questions we were going to put you about research in adults apart from the one I have just asked, but could I just ask you about research for Long Covid in children. Has there been any biomedical research to better understand Long Covid in children and young people? PROFESSOR BRIGHTLING: So there is work that's particularly focused now, through the NIH Recover programme. In the UK there's very limited research in terms of then looking at the underlying biology, in terms of them doing sampling, but considerable work in terms of then looking at the epidemiology and the phenotypes and the description of Long Covid in children and young adults. Q. In your view, would that be a recommendation that you would make, that that sort of work ought to be carried out in the UK? PROFESSOR BRIGHTLING: So I think there need to be a suite of research. So we talked earlier about the types of approaches we would recommend in terms of intervention trials. But also the more fundamental understanding should be supported through particularly through UKRI in the UK, and that would allow for more discovery research which would include children and young people as well as adults. We are currently the only UK based study (that I am aware of) to be doing biomedical research in children and young people with long COVID. If you and your child/children are interested in taking part please see my last post and get in contact. Danny Altmann Action Medical Research NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Long Covid Kids