UVa Health System's W. Michael Scheld M.D. Helps Secure $12.5 Million Gates Grant to Improve Healthcare in Uganda
Dec 18, 2008 - Accordia Global Health Foundation has received a $12.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a landmark study to identify the most effective and cost-efficient way to prepare healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa to treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
UVa's W. Michael Scheld, M.D., who is a founding member of Accordia, formerly known as the Academic Alliance Foundation, helped write the grant and will play a sizable role in the implementation of the study. "Our goal is to determine the best way to train mid-level practitioners. Depending on the results, it will inform training methods for these individuals in Uganda and elsewhere in the region in the future."
Dr. Scheld said 80% of the funds will go directly to the Ugandan partners in the project. "The ultimate goal is to improve the diagnosis and management of a wealth of infectious diseases in the region by enhanced training and clinical practice as a result." The study results could have an enormous impact on the way doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals across the continent are trained.
"The grant enables Accordia to further refine our model of best practices in healthcare education, building on our years of experience training health professionals in Africa," said Dr. Warner Greene, Accordia President. "The research will determine which specific approaches to infectious disease training have the greatest impact on the overall healthcare system, and could change how millions of dollars are being spent globally."
In Africa, clinical officers, nurses, and other mid-level practitioners outnumber doctors by 6:1. Training mid-level practitioners to perform tasks conventionally assigned to doctors could play a vital role in helping sorely strained health workforces in resource-limited settings better address the needs of their patients.
The three year study will take place at 32 sites throughout Uganda, and evaluate the impact of the new training program on clinical behavior and patient health. It will also test whether or not the incremental impact of on-site support services relative to classroom training alone can be cost-effective.
Dr. Scheld is the director of the Pfizer Initiative in International Health (PIIH) at UVa. PIIH is dedicated to supporting work to resolve disease and improve health conditions around the globe. PIIH offers scholarships and fellowships to UVa undergraduate and graduate students as well as fellows from other countries. Dr. Scheld has been working with Accordia since 2001.