1. Building capacity in international health research
An institutional perspective
Gareth Knight
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Data Dialogue: When research crosses borders
September 29th, 2016

2. Capacity Building activities

3. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Research and postgraduate education university specializing in public health and tropical medicine
Performs research that addresses public & global health needs
Recognised as one of world’s highest rated universities for collaborative research
4000 students & 1,500 staff working in 100+ countries
Share expertise to strengthen health research capability globally

4. Researcher challenges
Health research is performed in a complex environment
Build project consortium:
International collaboration between organisations of diverse structure and capability
Consortium agreement
Determine research environment:
Often performed in health research centres in resource-poor settings
But analysis may be performed elsewhere – problematic?
Address legal and regulatory obligations:
Laws, regulations, ethical codes, etc. for for work with human participants
As well as other requirements:
Institutional requirements – ethic, SOPs, etc.
Funder/publisher data sharing expectations

5. Each country has specific requirements
Research in situ
Each country has specific requirements
Regulatory environment:
Emerging laws and regulations
Specific requirements
Absence of legal framework
Is it ethical to apply UK practices onto other countries?
Local needs:
Health benefits for local population
Support local researchers/community
RDA recommendations for data harmonization are a good starting point

6. Infrastructure
Researcher often work in health research centres in resource-poor settings
Varying resources available to the researcher:
An electrical generator?
Network coverage?
Computers, data centre and other resources?
Professional data managers?
What must the researcher bring?
How does it affect data management practice?

7. IDEAS Project
Aims:
Collected data on pregnancies, deliveries and newborn care through household survey interviewing women of child-bearing age in Ethiopia (and elsewhere)
80 randomly sampled clusters
75 households per clusters (6,000 in total)
12 survey teams, each with 6 interviewers and one supervisor
Capture hardware:
84 Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (units, cases, extra batteries + import duties)
Survey implemented in CSPro
Data held on device & transferred to central storage system at end of day

8. Building capacity for new research
UK development:
Repurposing used tablets/phones in new projects, e.g. PhD, funded
Open Data Kit (ODK) server for collection & storage on LSHTM servers
Overseas development:
Establish & enhance technical infrastructure for project collaborators & overseas staff
Pay for visit UK to undertake training & attend meetings

9. Enhancing existing data
Routinely collected, administrative and other legacy data often used in research
Open-ended and occasionally updated over time
Discrepancies emerge over time
Survey instruments
Variable definitions
Selection rules for sub-population
Rules and procedures
Existing and emerging initiatives to harmonise and improve quality (e.g. using DDI)
However, sharing health data remains challenging due geographic & content sensitivities

10. Building for the future
Need for cross-governmental work to establish and harmonise laws and regulations related to health research
CODATA Legal Interoperability WG report is extremely useful!
Universities and other institutions should collaborate with overseas partners to improve data management infrastructure in developing countries
Link-up with international initiatives (CODATA, Open Data for Development and others)
Address issues related to restricted health data
Build data management support network for everyone (not just dev. Countries):
Explore career paths, training opportunities and support for Data Managers in country
Knowledge sharing activities
Networks / support groups with regular meetings – ADMIT

11. Thank You for your attention!
Questions

12. Image credits
Where in the world...(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
"Serrekunda, Gambia (CC BY-NC 2.0)
"The Tetris Castle" (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)