Published in News
This year marked the 2nd Annual Joint Technical Steering Committee (JTSC) Meeting for the GACD (Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases).
The meeting, hosted by GACD member agency, the South African Medical Research Council, provided an opportunity for the 15 research teams that make up the Hypertension Programme to further explore collaborative links, review and assess the activities of the Working Groups and to develop a deeper understanding of policymaker engagement and implementation sciences.
The meeting took place on 13 – 15 November 2013, in Cape Town, South Africa and this year welcomed many new researchers from over 19 different countries around the world.
According to the JTSC Co-Chairs Dr Jaime Miranda and Dr David Peiris, the essence of this year’s meeting was slightly different from 2012, in that many of the teams had made substantial progressions in their individual research projects as well as the joint activities of the Working Groups. Subsequently, there were more productive conversations to be had and the JTSC members felt that they had a better understanding of the value-add of the JTSC one year on.
Making the most of the fact that the meeting was held in Cape Town, many members took the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the care of hypertensive patients in a South Africa context with site visits to the Vanguard Community Centre and the Sports Science Institute of South Africa.
GACD research forum
JTSC Co-Chairs led the discussions during the forum where researchers shared some of the challenges that they had experienced in their research projects. From regulatory challenges to methodology and stakeholder engagement challenges, researchers collectively used their expertise to address the identified challenges going forward.
Working Groups updates
JTSC members had the opportunity to not only assess and review the activities of the Working Groups thus far, but also set clear objectives for the coming year.
Members agreed to draft a paper on the prevalence of hypertension with regard to the joint activities of the Baseline Prevalence Data and Data Sharing Working Group, and discussed the outputs from the Identifying Barriers to Hypertension Control mapping exercise.
A particular highlight was that a new Working Group on Joint Publications was established which will be chaired by Professor Brian Oldenburg of Monash University, Australia.
Policymaker engagement
The Policymaker Engagement sessions kicked off with presentations from South African policymakers on how to strategise and get implementation science research to influence policy at the highest level as well as at the regional level.
The participating policymakers included Sandhya Singh from the Department of Health South Africa, Professor Jimmy Volmink from Stellenbosch University, South Africa and Professor Helen Schneider from the University of Western Cape, South Africa.
The interactive session, which was unique to this year’s meeting, enabled Research Teams to work with South African policymakers to hone their skills of engaging policymakers in their research, through the development of a ‘policy pitch’. The top three teams presented to the group, who chose their top policy pitch. Members applied the skills they had learned from the ‘Think like a Journalist Workshop’ by GACD’s Rosie Bartlett to pitch to local policymakers on their individual research projects.
At the end of the session the participating policymakers gave valuable feedback on how to be engaging and how to get their voices and research to the fore.
‘‘Is the researcher always the best person to convey the message? It sometimes may be better for the message to be conveyed by someone whom the policymakers trusts’‘- Professor Jimmy Volmink, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
‘‘What came across very clearly was the need to align your [research] objectives to [health] systems, because otherwise [what you are proposing] won’t be sustainable, look at the existing systems within government and how your project can be integrated..’‘- Sandhya Singh, Director of Chronic Diseases, Department of Health, South Africa
Implementation science
During this session, JTSC Members heard from fellow researcher Dr Andre Kengne on how he successfully scaled up interventions to meet the needs of the community.
In addition, Dr Fairall and Professor Levitt, both from the University of Cape Town, shared their experiences on stakeholder engagement and knowledge translation.
The dynamic discussions focused on the different challenges to stakeholder engagement and how to successfully implement research projects given the complexities of changes in government guidelines and of health system level issues.
‘‘It can be difficult in an urban environment to find the right leaders in order to engage adequately with the community and I think that is real challenge’‘- Professor Naomi Levitt, University of Cape Town, South Africa
On 12 November 2013, JTSC members participated in a site visit to the Vanguard Community Health Centre which services the Bonteheuwel and Langa communities. The health centre provides much needed healthcare services to these township communities including the management of NCD patients.
JTSC members were able to see the implementation of a hypertension monitoring service that uses smartphone and SMS technology that forms part of the Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa (CDIA), Primary Care Trials Unit (PCTU), and Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBME).
Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA), Cape Town
On the final day, the group visited the SSISA where JTSC members were shown community health in action from school programmes to a senior citizens exercise group that makes up the Community Health Intervention Programmes or ‘CHIPS’.
We were introduced to a unique exercise project aimed at Senior Citizens in Cape Town’s townships. The Lansport Seniors, (a group of 65-90 year olds) greeted us with an energetic line dance routine in full cow boy costumes. The group was formed over twenty years ago. When asked what motivates them to exercise together twice a week, their response was “Love!”
‘‘It was great to see how all the Research Teams and the GACD Working Groups had progressed thus far and I am looking forward to seeing more collaboration in 2014. We [the GACD Secretariat Team] have heard from the researchers and the funders alike and we look forward to integrating all the feedback for an even more successful JTSC Meeting in China next year. I would also like to thank the South African Medical Research Council for hosting our meeting and I look forward to working with the Chinese Academy for Medical Sciences in 2014. ‘’- Celina Gorre, Executive Director, GACD
JTSC Meeting 2013 Flickr photos can be viewed at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/109850111@N02/collections/
Acknowledgements
The South African Medical Research Council
Dr Johan Louw
Dr Niresh Bhagwandin
Arlene Smith
Jean Fredericks
Monique Rossler
Travel With Flair
Charlene Byloo
Vanguard Community Health Centre, Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa (CDIA), Primary Care Trials Unit (PCTU), and Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBME)
Dr Kirsty Bubrow
Professor Andrew Farmer
Guest speakers
Sandhya Singh, Director for Chronic Diseases at the National Department of Health of South Africa
Professor Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town
Professor Helen Schneider, Director of the School of Public Health, University of Western Cape, South Africa
Dr Andre Kengne – The South African Medical Research Council National Collaborative Research Programme on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases, GACD Hypertension Programme Research Team 1
Dr Lara Fairall – Head of the Knowledge Translation Unit, University of Cape Town
Professor Naomi Levitt – Head of the Division of Diabetes and Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town, Director of the Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa
Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA) and the Community Health Intervention Programmes (CHIPS)
Dr Tracey Kolbe-Alexander