Friday Newsletter

Dear Centre Leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Secretariat. We hope you have had a good week.

We have six items for your attention this week:

1. INDEPTH Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2014
The AGM will take place from October 29 – 31, 2014, at Africana Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. Registration for the AGM is now open and can only be done online. All centre leaders are required to register and attend. It is important to note that attendance is a requirement for continued membership of the Network. For self-sponsored participants, the accommodation cost per night is $100.

Thanks to the following centre leaders have registered:

2. Call for New Member Centres - Data Repository of the INDEPTH Data Management Programme (IDMP)
The INDEPTH Data Management Programme (IDMP, formerly iSHARE2) encompasses all efforts of the INDEPTH Secretariat to support data collection, curation, management, quality control, data access and sharing.

3. Call for applications for OpenHDS data system workshop
OpenHDS is an open source data management system designed for efficient and cost effective data capture, management, and communication in HDSS sites. INDEPTH now invites applications from member centres interested in the adoption of OpenHDS for a training and data migration workshop which will take place in Kampala, Uganda from October 24 – 28, 2014.
Please see attached for details.

4. INDEPTH Small Grants Programme
Don’t miss this opportunity to apply for small grants from INDEPTH. The overall goal of this INDEPTH Small Grants programme is to support research and research capacity strengthening among INDEPTH member centres in low- and middle-income countries. We fund collaborative projects among three or more INDEPTH member centres.

Please see attached for details.

5. Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis Using SAS/R
The Research Department at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) in collaboration with the West African Bioethics Online Course is pleased to announce an online introduction to statistical methods and data analysis using SAS/R course.

Please see attached for details.

6. Meet our graduates from the INDEPTH-funded MSc Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Today, we feature Christian Ashong Nikoi, formerly of Dodowa HDSS, Ghana.

This series of short profiles is to introduce the more than 30 HDSS scientists who have been funded by INDEPTH to pursue the MSc in Population-based Field Epidemiology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Scholarships for this programme have been graciously provided by Sida, Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation. .

More information on the INDEPTH Scientific Development and Leadership Programme can be obtained by clicking on the following link: Leadership Programme.

Meet Dorean Nabukalu, formerly of Iganga/Mayuge HDSS, Uganda and now with Rakai HDSS, Uganda

Full name: Dorean Nabukalu
Position before the programme:Data Manager, Iganga/Mayuge HDSS, Uganda
Current Position : Statistician, Rakai Health Sciences Programme, Uganda
Student years at Wits University: 2010 - 2011
Host HDSS centre for the field attachment: Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, South Africa

Dorean says: “It is a very practical course with relevant, useful and rich course content. The mix of data management, demography, bio-statistics and epidemiology modules in this course gives a broad perspective and wide range of choices of career paths.

During the training period, she developed good skills on how to conduct good research with practical experience at the Agincourt HDSS during the field epidemiology module. She also attained improved data management and analysis skills learnt during the course modules and more so from the exposure obtained at the DSS she was attached to (Africa Centre) for her research report.

““The six months internship at Africa Centre gave me an opportunity to interact with quite a number of scientists while working on my thesis “Mortality in women of reproductive age in rural South Africa” which further added on to my analysis skills I learnt in class. From this piece of work, I submitted an abstract and was sponsored by INDEPTH for a poster presentation at the 11th ISC held in Maputo, Mozambique” she said.

In addition to that, with the help of her supervisors and the then Africa Centre director, Dorean was able to publish her findings with the Global Health Action late last year (2013) (see ttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3869952/)

“My research interest is in mortality and women of reproductive age group. I am very grateful to INDEPTH Network for the scholarship, for it was an eye opener” she said..

Currently, as a Statistician, Dorean is charged with (but not limited to) analysis and interpretation of data for generation of statistical reports (to be used in manuscript preparation and other scientific purposes) including regular progress reports for various study protocols, data management for statistical analysis, formulation and preparation of study protocols and standard operating procedures (including study design and Questionnaire design).

She also participates in the Studies Problem solving “Scientific” meetings among others.