Infectious Disease in East Africa: A Behavioral and Economic Research Collaborative (IDEA-BERC)

项目摘要 虽然技术创新在传统上被认为是对抗传染性疾病的关键 疾病、最近埃博拉和寨卡病毒的爆发表明，迫切需要整合洞察力 以帮助控制潜在的流行病和大流行。有必要了解如何 临床医生、患者和社区作出关于卫生保健和传染病的经济和社会决策 疾病风险--特别是在对人类决策有重大影响的贫困背景下。 为了应对这些挑战，东非的传染病：行为和经济 研究协作(IDEA-BERC)将在实施研究方面提供严格的、针对地区量身定做的培训 应用于传染病的挑战。为期5年的计划包括12-15名博士的中期培训 和东非博士后研究人员，他们将通过课程作业和指导领域 研究和课程开发-解决社会、行为和经济层面的 传染病。学员的研究项目将集中在以下四个主题之一(即健康激励、 信息、定价和服务交付)应用于一系列主题，从腹泻疾病到 蠕虫感染、疟疾和性传播感染。 学员随后将返回本国，在持续的指导下进行研究 由加州大学伯克利分校教职员工和东非同行导师提供。他们将加入一个紧密的同行研究人员网络，网址为 IDEA-BERC的三个东非合作研究机构：非洲人口健康研究中心， 内罗毕大学和卢旺达大学--所有这些大学都渴望在这一前景广阔的领域发展能力 跨学科领域。作为IDEA-BERC的一部分，这些合作伙伴将进行至少8个相关的短期培训 转向实施科学，覆盖200多名参与者，并专注于互补性研究 与实施研究相关的技能，如赠款写作、大数据和文学评论。 该计划的独特之处在于其在一系列数量和质量社会领域的严格标准 科学--不仅侧重于观测研究和模型开发(许多东方人 非洲研究人员已经出类拔萃)，但在改善传染病的干预措施的科学评估方面- 相关行为。从长远来看，IDEA-BERC将创建一个强大的区域调查网络和 具有技术能力和研究基础设施的机构，为政府和 多边传染病防控努力。区域能力将通过集中投资于 南南联网和召集机会，包括年度区域会议和小额赠款 推进研究性教学方法的实施。这些活动将确保受训人员 发展成为一个可持续的科学社区，具有更大的可持续性--和对公共健康的影响--比 任何调查人员或机构都可以在孤立的情况下取得成就。

Project Summary While technological innovation has traditionally been considered essential in the fight against infectious diseases, recent outbreaks of the Ebola and Zika viruses have revealed a compelling need to integrate insights from social science to help control potential epidemics and pandemics. It is essential to understand how clinicians, patients, and communities make economic and social decisions about health care and infectious disease risk—particularly in the context of poverty, which significantly affects human decision-making. To address these challenges, the Infectious Disease in East Africa: A Behavioral and Economic Research Collaborative (IDEA-BERC) will offer rigorous, regionally-tailored training in implementation research applied to infectious disease challenges. The 5-year program includes medium-term training for 12-15 doctoral and post-doctoral East African researchers, who will be equipped— through coursework, mentored field research, and curriculum development— to address the social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of infectious disease. Trainees' research projects will focus on one of 4 themes (i.e. health incentives, information, pricing, and service delivery) applied across a range of topics, from diarrheal diseases and helminth infections, to malaria and sexually transmitted infections. Trainees will subsequently return to their home nations to conduct research under ongoing mentorship by UC Berkeley faculty and East African peer mentors. They will join a tight network of peer researchers at IDEA-BERC's three partner East African research institutions: the African Population Health Research Center, University of Nairobi and the University of Rwanda--all of which are eager to develop capacity in this promising interdisciplinary area. As part of IDEA-BERC, these partners will carry out at least 8 short-term trainings related to implementation science, reaching more than 200 participants, and focused on complementary research skills like Grant Writing, Big Data, and Literature Reviews as they relate to implementation research. Unique to the program are its rigorous standards across a range of quantitative and qualitative social sciences—focusing not only on observational research and model development (areas in which many East African researchers already excel), but on scientific evaluation of interventions to improve infectious disease- related behaviors. In the long term, IDEA-BERC will create a robust regional network of investigators and institutions with the technical capacity and research infrastructure to inform the design of government and multi-lateral infectious disease control efforts. Regional capacity will be further built via focused investments in South-South networking and convening opportunities, including an annual regional conference and mini-grants to promote the teaching of implementation research methods. These activities will ensure that the trainees develop into a sustainable scientific community, with greater sustainability—and public health impact—than any investigator or institution can achieve in isolation.