Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research

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Edward Liechty, MD - Principal Investigator

The Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya Partnership has been selected by the National Institutes of Health to join the Global Network for Women's and Infant's Health Research. This research network, funded jointly by NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, conducts clinical research projects throughout the developing world. The Indiana-Moi site is one of two located in Africa. Other sites are located in India, Pakistan, and Central and South America.

The Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research (GN) was conceived in 2001 as a unique private-public partnership between the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in response to the alarming rates of morbidity and mortality in women and children and the lack of research expertise and infrastructure in the developing world. Its mission is to expand scientific knowledge, develop research infrastructures, and improve health outcomes by building research partnerships to conduct research on feasible, cost-effective, sustainable interventions to address the major causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality of women and children in the developing world. Our goals are the following:

• To address important perinatal public health problems to improve the outcome of mothers and children in the developing world.
• To build sustainable public health and research infrastructures.
• To build scientific capacity.
• To provide multidisciplinary, multi-level training opportunities.
• To collaborate with governments, communities, maternal-child health organizations, advocacy groups, other funding agencies, and donors to maximize cost-effectiveness of research.
• To disseminate research findings as the basis for local and national health policy.

The current Global Network is comprised of 7 multidisciplinary research units with established collaborations between a U.S. and a developing country institution. A U.S.-based senior Principal Investigator (PI) and a Senior Foreign Investigator (SFI) based in the developing world lead each team. A Data Coordinating Center (DCC) provides research support services to the Global Network. A National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) senior program scientist provides scientific oversight for the Global Network. A Steering Committee composed of all PIs, SFIs, the DCC PI, and the senior NICHD program scientist meets at least twice annually to develop and implement research protocols, interventions, and evaluation strategies, train staff to implement protocols, and disseminate findings. The Chairman of the Global Network is a senior international researcher chosen by NICHD. A Data and Safety Monitoring Board provides the overall guidance and management of the Global Network.

The Global Network collaborates with other Institutes and international agencies, including WHO, UNICEF, USAID, DHHS, and NGOs by providing the evidence basis for program development and advocacy. The Global Network is committed to providing high-quality scientific evidence on the effectiveness of feasible, sustainable interventions to inform decisions about changes in health policy. It works directly with countries and collaborators to scale-up such interventions in high-burden countries, simultaneously building independent scientific/research capacity and public health infrastructures.

This grant will bring $600,000 to the IU-Moi partnership for each of the next 5 years to conduct research to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of simple, community based health care interventions such as protein supplementation for infants and training of traditional birth attendants in the proper care of obstetrical and neonatal emergencies. Nearly all of the funding will be spent in Kenya to support and build the research infrastructure at Moi University.

The Principal Investigator of the project is Dr. Edward Liechty; the Co-Principal Investigator is Professor Fabian Esamai, Pediatrician and Dean of the Moi University School of Medicine. Dr Liechty spent the 2003-2004 academic year at Moi University as a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar, working closely with Professor Esamai during that time. Other important initiatives of the Indiana University Department of Pediatrics in Kenya include research and training in infant vaccine delivery, funded by the Merck Foundation, and the constriction of a new Hospital, the Riley Mothers and Babies Hospital of Kenya.

For more information...

Please visit the IU-Kenya Partnership Website.