The latest Partnership Development Grants will help UMMS faculty launch projects to increase cervical cancer screening uptake in Colombia; strengthen biomedical science training in India; and build capacity to expand gynecologic services in Ghana.
Offered twice a year, Partnership Development Grants award up to $10,000 to UMMS faculty to help establish collaborations with new partners abroad, funds that can be used to support travel or other project-related costs in support of advancing international collaborations. The next call for proposals will be announced in the fall.
Congratulations to the awardees below, from Family Medicine, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Multi-level Approaches to Reducing HPV Vaccine Hesitancy in Colombia
U-M Lead: Sherri Sheinfeld-Gorin, Professor of Family Medicine
Partner: Mariantonia Lemos Hoyos, PhD, Profesora Titular, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia
Cervical cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the world. Almost all cervical cancers are caused by persistent infections with oncogenic, or high-risk, types of human papillomavirus (HPV). The routine administration of the HPV vaccination could effectively reduce the burden of cervical and other HPV-associated cancers over the coming decades. Yet, HPV vaccine hesitancy has reduced the uptake of the HPV vaccine in Colombia. The long-term goal of this study is to increase HPV vaccine uptake—and reduce hesitancy—to prevent cervical, and other HPV-related cancers among Colombian adolescents. Using a multi-level approach, the project aims to describe the barriers to and facilitators of vaccine uptake through interviews and focus groups with key stakeholder groups. This funding will enable our partnership to build on our existing studies of HPV vaccine hesitancy and to expand the partnership for future collaborations.
Towards Development of a Collaborative Partnership for Biomedical Data Science training and research between CSIR India and University of Michigan India Platform
U-M Lead: Arvind Rao, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics
Partner: Geetha Vani Rayasam, PhD, Human Resource Development Group, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India
Headquartered in New Delhi, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research runs a large network of labs and outreach centers across India with the aim to support and expand scientific research in the country. Through this proposal, Rao intends to launch a partnership between Michigan Medicine and CSIR focused initially on scientific outreach and workforce development in the health sciences. Specific steps include: identifying faculty at CSIR-labs interested in co-mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral trainees; identify areas that might serve as a catalyst for joint research collaborations between CSIR and Michigan Medicine faculty; develop and deliver a series of 5-day bootcamps at CSIR outreach sites on AI for biomedical data sciences, targeted at students. For this latter aim, the team plans to work with the outreach coordinators at CSIR to have career panels inviting local and U-M faculty to talk (via zoom) about interdisciplinary careers in AI for biology & healthcare.
Building Gynecologic Hysteroscopy Capacity Among Trainees and Faculty in Ghana
U-M Leads: Dhanu Thiyagarajan, MD MPH, Obstetrics & Gynecology Global Women’s Health Fellow, Emma Lawrence, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Partner: Kwaku Asah-Opoku, MBChB, MPH, Assistant Professor Obstetrics and Gynecology, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
Hysteroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure in which a small camera is placed through the vagina to visualize the uterine cavity. Most often, it can help discover causes of the bleeding, such as polyps or fibroids. Given the limited clinician training and experience, gynecologic hysteroscopy is currently not available at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), the largest teaching hospital in Ghana. In this project, the team plans to build capacity for hysteroscopy at KBTH by exploring patient perceptions; training Dr. Asah-Opoku, the head of reproductive and family planning unit in operative hysteroscopy; and developing an educational curriculum for the procedure for future use.