U.S. Mentor
Drs. Ben & A. Jess Shenson Professor, Senior Associate Dean, Global Health, Director, Center For Innovation In Global Health, Professor Of Medicine, Stanford University; Senior Fellow At The Woods Institute
Zimbabwe
Site Institution: University of Zimbabwe
Research Areas: HIV/AIDS, TB, STIs, Mental Health
Site Description:
The University of Zimbabwe is the oldest university and the first to provide medical education in Zimbabwe. The first class of medical students graduated in 1963. Today, the University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (UZFMHS) has over 150 faculty, 4 pillars, 13 departments and 58 units.
The University of Zimbabwe Clinical Research Centre (UZCRC) was established in 2001 and has in 16 years executed 12 large clinical trials and several large sub-studies. The Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) is a holder of several grants from NIH, Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Unit from the mid-90s up to date. Stanford PIs have partnered with UZ through the DAIDS networks, Fogarty training grants and NIH R01s with James Hakim, Michael Chirenje, Tsungai Chipato and Peter Mason among other faculty at UZ.
On-going supported research focuses on AIDS, TB and STIs as a model slum health problem and aims to: 1) understand the natural history of the disease and determine the effectiveness of community-based interventions and 2) apply translational research approaches in identifying new diagnostics, prevention and treatments.
The infrastructure and expertise created by these studies has allowed UZ to secure large investments by PEPFAR, the US CDC and NIH to expand research into additional prevention and treatment interventions.
The UZFMHS operates within the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (PGH) and Harare Central Hospitals (HCH), which are the main teaching hospitals in the country. UZFMHS is recognized internationally as a vibrant research institution with several research groups/units/ affiliates (Clinical Research Centre, Biomedical Research and Training Institute, African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology, Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research Project, and the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research) that have contributed immensely to the health research environment in the country. The UZFMHS is a recipient of several international research grants. All these programs operate within the mandate of the UZFMHS Joint Research Ethics Committee (JREC) which is managed by UZFMHS and PGH and registered under the FWA and Office of Research and Integrity.
Mentors
GHES Alumni
- Fellowship Site: University Of ZimbabweProject Title: Implementing and evaluating an electronic herbal medicine reconciliation tool towards safe integration among HIV infected people (CHeMU_i.e.)The goal of my research is safe integration of conventional and herbal medicine. While people living with HIV appreciate the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy, they still choose to use herbal medicines for various reasons. However, their clinicians are often unable to guide them because of the limited clinical evidence base. This exposes patients to adverse events such as hypersensitivity reactions, toxicity and herb-drug interactions which may lead to poor adherence, treatment failure and drug resistance. Medication reconciliation lists that do not incorporate herbal medicines may also inadvertently overlook related adverse events, particularly in HIV clinics were herbal medicine use is high. Previous work showed that medication reconciliation tools and processes employed at HIV clinics in Zimbabwe are not targeted enough to document herbal medicine use in a useful way. However, clinicians considered herbal medicine reconciliation important and were willing to probe and document use provided a concise tool was made available. This proposal will therefore implement electronic herbal medication reconciliation into HIV clinical practice and evaluate its utility and acceptability among HIV clinicians. An electronic herbal medicine use data capturing tool will encourage communication and standardised documentation of herbal medicine use by HIV care providers. To achieve this, a paper-based herbal medicine data capture tool developed with input from clinicians and current literature recommendations, will be used to augment electronic medication history taking tools currently in use at selected HIV clinics. Clinicians at the sites will be trained on how to use the tool and asked to incorporate it into daily practice. Consenting clinicians involved with medicine history-taking will be invited to participate in focus group discussions to evaluate their experiences. The database will also be reviewed to determine any change in the rate of herbal medicine use capture after implementation of the tool. The vision is to establish an electronic herbal medicine use database that will serve as a source of information. This database will help to rapidly identify herbal medicines that should be prioritised for further clinical assessments such as potential herb-antiretroviral drug interactions, effect on liver and kidney function, as well as impact on HIV treatment outcomes.