PROJECT SUMMARY
Kenya continues to face a high burden of HIV despite thirty years of health sector and donor attention. To achieve
and sustain HIV epidemic control, we propose to train a multidisciplinary workforce of doctors, nurses and
pharmacists to design, conduct and disseminate research that can be readily moved from the field into policy
and practice to inform HIV prevention, care and treatment. The Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy at
the University of Nairobi, recipient of prior MEPI awards, propose to collaborate with partner medical, nursing
and pharmacy schools at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenyatta University, and
Maseno University to train both undergraduate and graduate students in team-based research methods,
including implementation science and quality improvement. US partners, University of Washington and Stanford
University, will contribute their expertise in implementation science training, interprofessional education and
gender equality. The first aim will create a 1-year advanced research training certificate for talented graduate
students in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy: students, with extensive mentoring support, will train in advanced
research methods and will complete a research project at this seminal moment early in their careers. This will
allow around 200 future leaders to finish their graduate medical, nursing and pharmacy studies experienced in
research methods and implementation science. Our second aim will create a research elective at the
undergraduate level for interprofessional teams of students in the 3 disciplines to spend 8 weeks in the field at a
teaching hospital developing and completing a quality improvement project. The elective will introduce motivated
students to research earlier than the current norm, and will disseminate advanced research methods, mentoring
experiences, and team science to teaching facilities around Kenya, focusing on the affiliate clinical faculty in rural
areas. Our third aim will institute interprofessional workshops and short courses at the teaching hospital level,
involving not only clinical faculty but also county health officials, Ministry of Health (MOH) personnel, and the 4
academic institutions, strengthening leadership, quality of care, and evidence-based approaches while creating
denser interprofessional networks. Qualified MOH and affiliate teaching faculty identified in this outreach will
have the opportunity to complete the one-year research certificate, further involving field teaching sites in
research approaches to public health problems. By integrating this training into both undergraduate and graduate
level curricula, this program will be sustainable and expected to continue; this award will allow all 4 institutions
to bring research into the undergraduate and graduate curricula for medicine, nursing and pharmacy, and will
integrate county health officials, MOH, and affiliate teaching hospitals in research, quality improvement and
implementation science to end HIV in Kenya.