Latest Blogs from the Alliance

Alliance News and Updates

Dr. Olugbenga Ogedegbe receives the Population Health Research Prize
The American Heart Association presented its 2023 Population Health Research Prize to Olugbenga “Gbenga” Ogedegbe of MAP-IT (and NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine). He was recognized during the presidential session of the Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023 on Sunday, 12 November. (You can watch a clip from his acceptance speech here). Congratulations, Gbenga, on this honor and we are thrilled to have you on our team!

Dike Ojji shares his research in the USA
MAP-IT MPI, Dr. Dike Ojji came to the US this month to present his work in Philadelphia and St. Louis. Dike spent time with Alliance colleagues from New York University and Washington University in St. Louis and gave several talks on the Hypertension Treatment in Nigeria program, including:

• During the “Late-Breaking Science” session at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (read a written synopsis or view a recording of this event here)
• During Grand Rounds at Washington University in St. Louis (recording available here)
• At the Global-to-Local Health: Community-Based Approaches to Improving Maternal Cardiovascular Health in St. Louis and Nigeria panel discussion hosted by Washington University in St. Louis (you can view a recording from this event here)

 Many Alliance leaders convene at CPHIA
Elvin Geng (RCC), Ana Mocumbi (SCALE SAIA-HTN), Wilbroad Mutale (TASKPEN) and other members of the HLB-SIMPLe Alliance attended the third International Conference on Public Health in Africa. “It was exhilarating to see the breadth and depth of public health activity and action at this conference not to mention many colleagues from across the continent in one place,” Elvin said. Key discussion topics were strengthening health systems, investing in human resources, and many heads of state made public commitments to leadership in health. (In fact, the president of Zambia declared that he wanted to host a future hub of vaccine production in Zambia!).

Wilbroad hosted a session where he asked audience members to break into small groups and brainstorm solutions to public health challenges in Africa. After the groups presented their ideas, Wilbroad pointed out that the African public health workforce is intimately familiar with the problems on the continent and also holds the solutions in their hands, arguing that investment in political will to put these solutions into practice is what is most needed.

In Other News…

The Lancet welcomes implementation science research articles

Thoughts from Aaloke Mody (RCC): On their 10th anniversary, Lancet Global Health published an editorial titled Implementing Implementation Science in Global Health where they express their long overdue interest in publishing more implementation science research focused on global health. This is a welcome development, as many to most of global health problems are fully rooted in implementation challenges. One could readily argue that global health research cannot and should not be disentangled from implementation research.

It is noteworthy that one of the world’s leading global health journals is now calling for more attention to implementation science for addressing persistent challenges in global health. Implementation science as a field, though, is also continuing to evolve. Researchers have recognized the ways in which current practices, theories, frameworks, and measurements in implementation science have failed to measure up to their promise in global health settings, and even have potential to undermine impactful research agendas when used inappropriately. This editorial should thus also be a reminder that—just as journals may need to evolve in their priorities—that we as an implementation science research community must continue to evolve, adapt, refine, and even rethink our practices to ensure that they and our research agendas are thoughtfully conceptualized and contextually relevant for addressing the most pressing questions for advancing global health.

HLB-SIMPLe at the AcademyHealth D&I Conference

Many HLB-SIMPLe colleagues will be attending the 16th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health in Arlington, Virginia, December 11th through the 13th.

MAP-IT MPI Angela Aifah will present on HLB-SIMPLe’s cross-country implementation strategies on Tuesday, December 12th during the 8am poster session in the Arlington Ballroom with a poster on Integrating non-communicable diseases care into HIV treatment in Africa: Cross-cutting implementation strategies across six countries. We welcome your help promoting this on social media in advance, and created a graphic you can use for this purpose (please use the conference hashtag #DIScience23).

We also hope to see many of you in attendance at the pre-conference workshop on Sunday, 10 December at 5pm on Thinking Globally: Exploring Implementation Science Strategies in LMICs (advance registration required).

You can find a list of other conference presentations led or supported by Alliance researchers and their colleagues here.

Alliance members are also invited to join these two social events happening during the week of the conference:

• Monday, 11 December at 5:15pm – an informal networking event with Federal Team colleagues at San Antonio Bar and Grill (1664A Crystal Dr., Arlington). No need to register in advance, food and drinks will be at your own expense.
• Tuesday, 12 December from 6-9pm – a gathering hosted by Washington University in St. Louis at the Sky Lounge (1401 Joyce St., Arlington). Dinner and drinks will be provided, please register in advance. You do not need to be affiliated with WashU to attend.

More opportunities and announcements can be found in the latest HLB-SIMPLe newsletter. If you are not receiving the newsletter but would like to be, click here to subscribe.

REMINDER: Please include the appropriate NIH grant number(s) when submitting any HLB-SIMPLe-related research or information for publication or presentation.