E Ochodo, Stellenbosch University, Evidence synthesis for building a translation pipeline to eliminate infectious diseases

艾滋病毒、结核病和疟疾等传染病仍然在非洲造成大量疾病和死亡。尽管疟疾和结核病是可以治疗的，尽管有检测这些疾病的检测方法，尽管有使艾滋病毒感染者健康正常化的治疗方法，但情况仍然如此。对此的一个可能解释是，在执行或转化研究结果为政策提供信息方面所采用的方法效率低下。研究翻译涉及以正确的格式将正确的信息提供给正确的人，他们可以很容易地理解，以告知决策。执行过快或过慢的政策都可能使疾病的有效控制受到最大程度的影响。正确地做到这一点很重要，需要严格的方法和科学来帮助确保这一点。总结现有的研究结果，并以一种易于解释和理解的方式（也称为证据综合）来展示它，可以帮助决策。在使用干预措施的决定和实际使用之间存在多种影响因素。需要从不同领域，包括技术方面、成本、可接受性和实用性，综合研究结果的组合，但综合方法仍不清楚。我们的愿景是通过总结不同领域的研究成果，为政策、政策的实施和修订提供信息，从而为实施提供更广泛的研究成果基础。在非洲，关于改进研究成果总结方式和如何改进将研究成果转化为政策的方法的研究和开发有限。需要有适合非洲情况的研究方法，以促进该区域更好地吸收和可持续性。 该项目旨在通过总结和整合不同领域的研究成果，正式制定将研究成果转化为政策的方法。我们的目标还在于提出改进将证据转化为政策的方法。最终，我们的目标是通过这一点，建立一个研究小组，并在未来建立一个次区域中心，在肯尼亚的证据合成和研究翻译科学。据我们所知，肯尼亚还没有这样一个指示或协调中心。本项目的目标是：1.根据肯尼亚的国家优先事项，总结新的和现有的艾滋病毒、结核病和疟疾干预措施的效果和实施情况。发展和实施总结和整合不同领域研究成果和知识的方法。通过总结和整合研究和知识，编写评论摘要。向政策制定者传达和传播这一综合方法的专门知识和产品。在实现这一目标的过程中，我们将在肯尼亚建立一个研究小组，负责艾滋病毒、结核病和疟疾的证据合成和研究翻译。该项目是及时的，有可能产生巨大影响。在新的领导下，世界卫生组织（世卫组织）明确转向将决策权下放到区域一级。未来需要在非洲的研究基础设施中牢固地确立证据合成的控制地位。该项目的研究结果将有助于肯尼亚的决策者，他们在决策时需要有能力综合不同领域的研究结果。

Infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria still cause considerable illness and death in Africa. This is despite malaria and TB being treatable, the availability of tests to detect these diseases and the presence of treatment to normalize the health of people living with HIV. One possible explanation for this could be the ineffective ways used to implement or translate findings of research to inform policy. Research translation involves getting the right information to the right people at the right format they can easily understand to inform decision-making. A policy that is implemented too rapidly or too slowly can minimize effective control of disease. Getting this right is important and needs rigorous methods and science to help assure this.Summarizing available research findings and presenting it in a way that can be easily interpreted and understood (otherwise known as evidence synthesis) can help in decision making. Multiple influencing factors exist between the decision to use an intervention and its use in practice. A portfolio of integrated research findings from different fields including technical aspects, costs, acceptability and practicality is needed but methods of integration are still unclear. Our vision is a broader base of research findings for implementation being supported by summarising research findings from different fields to inform policy, implementation and revisions of policies.In Africa, there has been limited research and development on methods to improve how research findings are summarised and how to improve translation of research findings to policy. Research methods tailored to the African context are needed to facilitate better uptake and sustainability in the region. This project aims to formally develop an approach to translating research findings into policy through summarizing and integrating research findings from different fields. We also aim to recommend methods of improving translation of evidence into policy. Ultimately, through this, we aim to establish a research group and in future a sub-regional centre for the science of evidence synthesis and research translation in Kenya. To our knowledge such a directive or coordinating centre does not yet exist in Kenya. The objectives of this project are:1. To summarize the effect and delivery of new and existing interventions on HIV, TB and malaria per national priorities of Kenya.2. To develop and implement methods of summarizing and integrating research findings and knowledge from different fields.3. To develop summaries of reviews generated by summarizing and integrating research and knowledge.4. To communicate and circulate know-how and products of this integrative approach to policy makers.In the process of achieving this, we will establish a research group in evidence synthesis and research translation in HIV, TB and malaria in Kenya.This project is timely and has potential for great impact. Under new leadership, there is an explicit shift in the World Health Organization (WHO) to devolve policy making to regional level. The future requires the position of control for evidence synthesis to be firmly implanted in the research infrastructure in Africa. The findings of this project will be useful to policy makers in Kenya who require capacity to integrate research findings from different areas when making decisions.