Nih international Programs

NIH International Programs

• Flora N. Katz, Ph.D.

• Fogarty International Center, N.I.H.

Fogarty International Center, NIH

• Mission: Promote and support scientific research and training internationally to reduce disparities in global health.

• “Science for Global Health”

Fogarty International Center Programs

• 29 Programs in 91 countries:

• Training (16)
• Research (11)
• Fellowship (2)

• Most of our programs receive co-funding from other NIH Institutes and other USG agencies

Structure of Programs

• Most grants require collaborations between US or developed country investigators and investigators and institutions in low and middle income countries.

• Emphasis placed on interdisciplinary approaches not addressed adequately in current NIH global portfolio

• Many projects involve multiple foreign countries

Communication, Mentoring, Program Management

Web-based Networking Collaboratories for Fogarty Training Programs

• NIMH Small Business Innovation Research Contracts

• To address the needs of international collaborations to share data, materials, meetings, and seminars

• Access portal to relevant information

• Videoconferencing capability

Barriers to connectivity-survey of grantees (JG Perpich, LLC)

• Slow connection speeds—several respondents routinely use modems at less than 56K

• Service charges on the internet service providers (ISPs) can be prohibitive (many of the laboratories are unable to use the government email or internet structure due to inefficiencies and have to pay for private ISPs)

Barriers

• Infrastructure can be unreliable—electricity, phone and internet connections come and go periodically

• Political/social issues—censorship of discussions about blood, plasma and HIV are real problems in some countries, especially China

Data Management, Flow, and Access

International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups Program

New ICBG U01 Awards

• Uzbekistan/

• Kyrgyzstan

• Papua New Guinea

• Vietnam/Laos

• Madagascar

• Panama

New Planning Grants

• Costa Rica

• Jamaica

• Jordan

• Fiji

• Samoa

• Madagascar

• Philippines

Vietnam-Laos ICBG Drug Discovery Program

Infrastructure is insufficient without training

International Training in Medical Informatics (1997-2003)

• Mission: Enhance Informatics capacity in developing countries through training

• 10 Programs in 11 countries

• Trained over 70 students, 40 to the level of MPH, MSc, or PhD.

• 100% of trainees that received US training returned to home countries

Examples of Projects

• Establishment of the first rural Medical Records System in Kenya at a primary care facility servicing an area with no electricity, telephones, or tap water

• Establishment of first postgraduate/degree Program in Medical Informatics in sub-Saharan Africa

• Distance learning project for MI in Brazil

Examples

• In addition to training, establishment (with help from NLM) of a wireless wide area network with internet link to connect the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi internally and with four international projects funded by NIH, the Wellcome Trust, the Gates Foundation, and the Malaria Project.

Informatics Training for Global Health (ITGH- 2004)

• Mission: To build capacity in informatics to support biomedical and behavioral research in developing country institutions and to develop regional training centers. Training must be integrated with ongoing research at foreign site.

• Enquires regarding more than 70 institutions

• Projects: Awards will be announced in May, 2004

More advanced applications?

Health, Environment, and Economic Development (HEED)

• Mission: To encourage developmental and exploratory research in developing countries on topics that combine the issues of health, environment, and economic development.

Use of GIS analysis-one example

• US-Brazil: How do land use/cover changes in frontier areas of Brazilian Amazonia impact human health? Integrate socio-demographic data and geo-referenced land use/cover data into a unified geo-referenced database.