Boosting Research Capacity Through Operational Training

Courtesy of Burnet Institute

Burnet and local partners are working with the governments in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to reduce the burden of tuberculosis through a specialised training program for healthcare workers.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious illness, caused by bacteria, which mainly affects the lungs. TB is highly infectious and spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) have some of the highest rates of TB in the world.

The Structured Operational Research and Training IniTiative (SORT-IT) seeks to help change that.

The training aims to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes by searching for knowledge on strategies, interventions or tools that can enhance the performance of local health programs to address TB.

The latest training sessions held in Indonesia and PNG, produced 14 research publications , boosting local research capacity and improving healthcare programs.

Dr Felisia from Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia took part in one of the SORT-IT courses in Indonesia and said it was one of the most valuable training sessions she had attended.

"We learnt about the basics of protocol development, data cleaning and analysis, and how to prepare a manuscript for publication," she said.

"To be named as a first author on a publication was incredibly gratifying and I am so grateful to Burnet to have had this opportunity."

"This training has inspired me to do more research and have more of my work published, and potentially even apply to do a master's degree in the future."

Burnet Institute Country Director of Papua New Guinea and public health physician Dr Fredrick Charles , who participated in the SORT-IT training session in Papua New Guinea said the session provided the practical tools needed to develop a research manuscript and publish it.

"Operational research is crucial to make sense of our own data to make informed decisions at the facility, provincial and the national level," he said.

"The peer reviewed publication of my manuscript provided public confidence in the evidence it generated and highlighted a need for policy change and implementation."

Burnet Co-Head of Tuberculosis Elimination and Implementation Science, Dr Philipp du Cros said the training sessions helped foster collaboration and partnerships between health facilities, universities and the local community.

"It's about supporting our partners learning to try to solve the problems healthcare workers are facing in these contexts through training in analysis and publishing research based on data collected within their programs," he said.

"This also creates a culture of research and innovation within the communities."

The training is designed to strengthen local capacity in operational research, which can help inform policy and practices in Indonesia and PNG.

The SORT-IT programs in PNG and Indonesia are implemented by Burnet Institute and funded by the Australian Government through the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and the Medical Research Future Fund.

The training program was developed by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases through the World Health Organization (WHO-TDR) and is being offered through a collaboration between Burnet Institute, the PNG Institute of Medical Research, the University of Papua New Guinea, the PNG National Department of Health, and the Centre for Tropical Medicine at the University of Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.

SORT-IT publications

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SORT-IT publications

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