Unima|College of Medicine:2017 Applications For M-HIRST Masters Degree Fellowships

Unima|College of Medicine:2017 Applications For M-HIRST Masters Degree Fellowships

BACKGROUND
The College of Medicine (CoM) was established in 1991 as a constituent college of the University of Malawi with a mission “to be an academic centre of excellence in the training of doctors and other health professionals in clinical service and medical research, responsive to the health needs of Malawi and its neighbours within the Southern African region”. Through postgraduate training, CoM expects to develop and mentor clinicians, public health practitioners and scientists who will become leaders and game-changers in their areas of speciality to transform the health sector in Malawi and globally. In pursuit of its mission, the CoM is inviting applications from suitably qualified candidates for the following fellowships:
A. M-HIRST Masters Fellowships
With funding from the National Institutes of Health-Fogarty International Centre in the USA, the Malawi HIV Implementation Science Research Training Program (M-HIRST) will fund Masters fellowships which will enable Malawians achieve research and academic excellence and leadership in the area of HIV implementation science research. Applicants who propose HIV implementation science projects as the basis for the MPH/MSc degree program will be considered for tuition support based on merit of the proposal, research aptitude of the applicant, and potential of the applicant to progress with doctoral (PhD) studies in HIV implementation science. Successful applicants will be required to take the following courses offered in the CoM Research Support Centre, the MPH/MSc programme or University of North Carolina Research Project (in Lilongwe), as part of the Masters program: Introduction to Implementation Research, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Grants Writing, Manuscript Writing, Clinical Research Design, Social Sciences for Public Health and HIV & AIDS.
Eligibility criteria includes:
1. Bachelors degree from any recognized university, in any area relevant to the health sector relevant subject or;
2. Already admitted in an accredited CoM Masters degree programme
 
Applicants for these research degrees are strongly advised to have preliminary discussions with potential supervisors or Project Directors to develop research concepts before.
 
Find attached the Masters-Fellowship-Application
The_Importance_of_Context_in_Implementation
 
 
Interested candidates should applications along with their updated curriculum vitae and photocopies of their Bachelors degree academic transcripts to the CoM RSC Training Coordinator rsctrainingcoordination@medcol.mw.
The deadline for receiving applications will be on Friday, 30th September 2017.

Call For Applications For M-HIRST Senior Fellows Program

BACKGROUND
The College of Medicine (CoM) was established in 1991 as a constituent college of the University of Malawi with a mission “to be an academic centre of excellence in the training of doctors and other health professionals in clinical service and medical research, responsive to the health needs of Malawi and its neighbours within the Southern African region”. Through postgraduate training, CoM expects to develop and mentor clinicians, public health practitioners and scientists who will become leaders and game-changers in their areas of speciality to transform the health sector in Malawi and globally.  In pursuit of its mission, the CoM is inviting applications from suitably qualified candidates for the following fellowships:

1. Research Fellowships

With funding from the National Institutes of Health-Fogarty International Centre in the USA, the Malawi HIV Implementation Science Research Training Program (M-HIRST) will fund fellowships which will enable Malawians achieve research and academic excellence and leadership in the area of HIV implementation science research. The M-HIRST programme will also support academics/research scientists employed in the CoM or its recognized local research implementation partners to develop their implementation science skills so that they can progress towards research independence.  CoM will offer a 2 year fellowship which will provide modest salary support, access to funding for small research grants, participation in short course programs in key research skills and access to research mentors in Implementation science.
 
Through the M-HIRST programme small grant funding (up to US$12,500) is also available for any academic or research scientists employed or affiliated to the College of Medicine who would like to implement preliminary HIV implementation research project to generate data for future large research projects.
Admission requirements for research fellowships:

1. Completed MMED (or equivalent) in relevant subject or
2. PhD in relevant subject or
3. Medical Degree with Master’s in Public Health or equivalent
4. Employees of the College of Medicine or its research implementation partners

Find attached the Small_Grant template
Interested candidates should applications along with their updated curriculum vitae and photocopies of their relevant academic transcripts to the CoM RSC Training Coordinator (rsctrainingcoordination@medcol.mw). The deadline for receiving applications will be on Friday, 30th September 2017.

Call For Applications For M-HIRST Small Grants Program

BACKGROUND
The College of Medicine (CoM) was established in 1991 as a constituent college of the University of Malawi with a mission “to be an academic centre of excellence in the training of doctors and other health professionals in clinical service and medical research, responsive to the health needs of Malawi and its neighbours within the Southern African region”. Through postgraduate training, CoM expects to develop and mentor clinicians, public health practitioners and scientists who will become leaders and game-changers in their areas of speciality to transform the health sector in Malawi and globally.  In pursuit of its mission, the CoM is inviting applications from suitably qualified candidates for the following fellowships:

1. Implementation Science Mentored Small Grants Program

With funding from the National Institutes of Health-Fogarty International Centre in the USA, the Malawi HIV Implementation Science Research Training Program (M-HIRST) will fund mentored small grants which will enable Malawians achieve research and academic excellence and leadership in the area of HIV implementation science research. The M-HIRST programme will also support academics/research scientists employed in the CoM or its recognized local research implementation partners to develop their implementation science skills so that they can progress towards research independence.
Through the M-HIRST programme small grant funding (up to US$12,500) is also available for any academic or research scientists employed or affiliated to the College of Medicine who would like to implement preliminary HIV implementation research project to generate data for future large research projects.
Admission requirements for small grants:

1. Enrolled or completed in Master’s Degree Program
2. Completed MMED (or equivalent) in relevant subject or
3. PhD in relevant subject or
4. Medical Degree with Master’s in Public Health or equivalent
5. Employees of the College of Medicine or its research implementation partners.

 
Find attached the Small_Grant template
Interested candidates should applications along with their updated curriculum vitae and photocopies of their relevant academic transcripts to the CoM RSC Training Coordinator (rsctrainingcoordination@medcol.mw). The deadline for receiving applications will be on Friday, 30^th September 2017.

Reflection Day Celebrations

College of Medicine would like to invite you to ‘COM Reflection Day’ as we celebrate our 26^th anniversary on 6^th September this coming Wednesday. This particular occasion marks the day when the first COM cohort students attended their first classes of their final year of clinical study in Malawi in 1991. As this day comes round again we would like to do our own reflection on what part of our institution’s story gives us hope for the future under our theme ‘EXCELLENCE YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW’
I thus hereby invite you all to be part of this great Reflection day
Date:                             Wednesday 6^th September 2017
Time:                            3:30pm
Venue:                        New Library Auditorium followed by a cocktail at Sports     Complex Breezer
Dress Code:             Silver Jubilee Wear/ any smart casual
Who to attend:      College of Medicine Staff
 
RSVP:    Dr. Fanuel Lampiao   0881992652
Dr. Janelisa Musaya Mwalija 0995673503
Ms Lucy Msiska 0993137527

Thanzi la Onse Grant and Establishment of Health Economics and Policy Unit (HEPU)

GCRF Thanzi la Onse (Health of All)

Funded through the RCUK Collective Fund under the ‘Growing research capability to meet the challenges faced by developing countries’ funding call
4 year project (Oct 2017 – Dec 2021)
Core partners: Centre for Health Economics (lead-institute); Department of Politics, York; Imperial College London; UCL; Overseas Development Institute; School of Public Health/College of Medicine/Department of health Systems and policy/University of Malawi; Prof Joseph Mfutso-Bengo is the local investigator and Research Project implementation lead in Malawi; Public Health Institute of Malawi; MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDs; Center for Global Development
Total value: £6,658,461

TLO’s core objective is to improve population health and reduce health inequity in Malawi.  It aims to achieve this by developing a model of Malawi’s health care system which will reflect the health care needs of the population, the resources available (in terms of financial, human and facility resources), and how these resources are currently being deployed.
The model will allow researchers to illustrate how different resource allocation strategies will affect the provision of health care and the subsequent impact on population health, including the extent to which health interventions could be fully implemented, the health losses incurred by implementing some health care interventions and not others, as well as the losses resulting from diverting funds away from one intervention to support the implementation of another.  TLO researchers will work closely with policy-makers in Malawi to support them in using the data produced by the model to inform national health care budgets and resource allocation decisions.
In the long term, it is hoped that by strengthening the local health economics and ethical modelling capacity in Malawi and Uganda (supported by TLO’s capability building activities), the model and value-evidence-informed decision-making processes can be further developed and used as templates to address the resource allocation challenges facing other countries in Africa, starting first in Uganda where the TLO project team has already laid out plans to support decision-makers.
Possible quotes:
“Thanzi la Onse will apply value- evidence and high-quality analysis to support challenging resource allocation decisions in health systems in southern and eastern Africa. The UK has been at the forefront of developing such methods for use in the NHS, and now we have the opportunity to work with international partners to further develop and employ them to meet the varied challenges faced in low income settings.”
Prof. Mark Sculpher, Professor of Health Economics, Centre for Health Economics, University of York – Principal Investigator for Thanzi la Onse.
“Central to any health care system is the health benefits package (HBP) to which the population has access. The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) has previously guided the Ministry of Health in Malawi in the development of its HBP. However, given the vast expenditures by governments, donors and others in global health, the evidence bases upon which HBPs are formed are worryingly limited. Thanzi la Onse will address this and support evidence-informed policy in Malawi, Uganda and the wider east Africa region.”
Paul Revill, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Economics, University of York – Programme Director for Thanzi la Onse
“The Ministry of Health has had long-standing relationships with the University of York and other Thanzi la Onse partners to support capacity development in health economics and evidence based medical decision-making in Malawi. The programme will enable us to strengthen and enhance these partnerships, with potentially transformative effects on health care delivery and the health of Malawians over the longer-term.”
Dr. Benson Chilima, Deputy Director of Preventive Health Services, Ministry of Health and Executive Director, Public Health Institute of Malawi.
The Thanzi la Onse programme will help also to strengthen capacity and the research through the establishment at College of Medicine Lilongwe Campus -Department of Health Systems & Policy –Health Economics-Policy Unit (HEPU). HEPU will focus specifically in the areas of health economics, equity, ethics and disease modelling, which will support the ministries of health in using the best available evidence to inform national health policy in Uganda and Malawi. The Ugandan Unit will be headed by
Prof. Janet Seeley, Professor of Anthropology and Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, Entebbe, Uganda.

Social Innovation in Health Initiative

Now more than ever, new and better solutions are required to improve healthcare for mothers, women and children. We believe that across Malawi there are already many existing solutions that are making a difference!
Read More »

Call for Abstracts 21st Research Dissemination Conference

The College of Medicine is pleased to announce that the 2017 Research Dissemination Conference will be held from 24th–25th November 2017 at the Mahatma Gandhi Campus in Blantyre, Malawi. This annual research dissemination conference is the premier gathering of local and international research scientists, public health practitioners and policy-makers. The theme of this year’s conference is: Driving the next decade of research in Malawi: Achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals. This two day conference will promote dialogue and critical reflection on the extent to which research has contributed towards achieving health-related sustainable development goals. In addition, the conference will examine latest local evidence, emerging health outcomes, as well as consider the implications for policy and programming for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being.
To submit an abstract: Presenters are required to use a template of the abstract that can be accessed on the following website: http:// www.rsc.medcol.mw/.
 
he abstracts should be submitted by email to 2017rdcabstracts@medcol.mw by 17.00 hours, Friday 25th August 2017.

21st Research Dissemination Conference (RDC)

The College of Medicine is pleased to announce that the 2017 College of Medicine Research Dissemination Conference will be held on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th November 2017 at the College of Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Campus in Blantyre. This annual meeting brings together health care researchers, practitioners and policy makers within and outside Malawi. The theme of this year’s conference is: Driving the next decade of research in Malawi: Achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
We are inviting interested companies and individuals to submit their expression of interest to put up exhibitions of their products and services. This will be an opportunity for you to showcase your products and network with delegates hence raising your profile to the researchers and the general public.
To exhibit your products, you will be required to pay the following:

1. Local business exhibitors: MK 80, 000.00
2. International business exhibitors: USD 600

Each individual manning the exhibition stall will pay a registration fee of MK 10,000. This will cover refreshments and lunch. The registration fees can be paid in advance or on the conference day.
If you would like to register in advance, please contact us on
2017rdcregistration@medcol.mw or call on +265 (0)993 137 527 / +265 (0)888 123 811.
You can also visit Research Support Centre in ICT Building at College of Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi campus.
If you would like to be an exhibitor, please request an Expression of Interest form from the following email address: 2017rdcexhibitions@medcol.mw. Please send back the completed form by 17:00hrs on Wednesday 27th September, 2017. If you have any questions, please contact us on 2017rdcenquiries@medcol.mw.