The UC Global Health Institute (UCGHI), a UC-wide initiative that promotes global health research, education, and collaboration, recently awarded new UCGHI Incubator Awards. These grants are designed to stimulate multi-campus and multidisciplinary collaborations that also include international partners to propose innovative strategies for addressing significant global health challenges.
IGHS faculty, students and staff were involved in many of the projects that received the new pilot grants.
Accelerating Implementation Science and Research Translation for Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy
UC has an astounding breadth and depth of research and knowledge innovations around implementation science, economics, and global health policy spanning many disciplines. Our collective potential to provide trans-disciplinary research and technical expertise to partners outside of academia to influence global health delivery and diplomacy is unmatched. The aim of this collaboration is to explore how we might develop a service/knowledge hub that will accelerate system-wide efforts to facilitate knowledge exchange, build UC-wide capacity for policy-engaged research, accelerate the research-to-use pathway, foster trans-disciplinary research collaborations, and increase global policy dialogue.
The team includes IGHS faculty member Dilys Walker, MD, and staff member Hannah Park.
Advancing Research and Education Efforts to Decolonize Global Health Across all UC Campuses
There has been significant but underappreciated discontent among public health practitioners in low- and middle-income countries over the discriminatory activities of funding agencies, universities, and individuals from high-income countries for centuries. There have been recent calls for the decolonization of global health, and the re-examination of assumptions and practices underpinning global health partnerships. This 12-month initiative with two inter-linked paths (Research and Education) will support and promulgate cross-campus efforts to build a Center of Excellence focused on Global Health Equity.
The team includes IGHS faculty Elizabeth Fair, Ali Mirzazadeh and Mike Reid, and students Lucia Abascal, Naomi Beyeler, Canice Christian, Jane Fieldhouse, Sarah Gallelee and Johnson Lyimo.
Community-University Partnership to Develop Cultural Humility Training for Researchers and Health Providers
COVID-19 and continued assaults on BIPOC communities have magnified gaps in public health infrastructure and exacerbated the inequities that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. For researchers and practitioners, implicit bias training and community-based participatory research can be effective at reducing discriminatory behaviors and connecting with communities as partners to address health issues. However, to be maximally impactful, we need to be sensitive to the lived reality of members of affected communities and be equipped with skills to deliver trauma-informed care and practice founded on principles of cultural humility. This community-academic partnership will develop a training program that reduces the risk of perpetuating implicit biases and avoids amplifying the structural inequities that undermine current public efforts.
The team includes Madhavi Dandu, MD, MPH, and Kelly Taylor, PhD, MPH.
Pan American Pandemic Alliance
The Pan American Pandemic Alliance seeks to create a Latin America focused learning collaborative for pandemic preparedness and response. The Alliance will forge deeper connections between UC researchers and Latin American partners. They will champion five streams of collaborative work including: 1) public and clinical health workforce development; 2) supporting evidence to action policy initiatives throughout Latin America; 3) coordinate and foster research partnerships that advise decision makers of localized strategies to mitigate the pandemic; 4) create a learning collaborative and community of practice for partners and UC collaborators to learn from and champion each other’s work and through these work streams 5) support faculty development to foster talent that will be well poised to address the next pandemic.
The team includes IGHS faculty member Mike Reid; staff members Jeremy Alberga, Hannah Park, Kelly Sanders, Katy Vosburg and Susie Welty; and PhD student Lucia Abascal.
Perioperative and Surgical Health Equity
Surgical conditions account for 30% of the global burden of disease, but in 2021, surgical and anesthesia care remain an under-supported element of the achievement of UN goal of universal health coverage.
The Perioperative and Surgical Health Equity Center of Expertise will unite 8 UC campuses and their partners to advance equity in surgery, anesthesia and perioperative care through ethical and innovative research, education and community engagement. By leveraging the expertise of the UC system and its global network, the project will facilitate multi-directional exchange; train leading researchers and change agents; and engage in research and partnerships that center community and patient perspectives.
The team includes Doruk Ozgediz and Lauren Wall.