Highlights from the 9th EDCTP Forum in Lisbon
Researchers from WWARN and the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) presented at the 9th European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) forum held in Lisbon, Portugal from 17-21 September 2018.
Over 500 delegates attended the 9th EDCTP forum to discuss the impact and opportunities for clinical research and sustainable development partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa.
An inspiring workshop led by Professor Philippe Guérin, Laura Merson and Trudie Lang at The Global Health Network (TGHN), presented the challenges and opportunities of data sharing. WWARN's West African Regional Centre lead Professor Oumar Gaye shared his perspective of gathering and pooling data for collaborative analyses with multiple partners in the region. The workshop is well timed to support EDCTP as it explores new strategies with programme partners to share and re-use research data more openly. The workshop team launched a new partnership initiative that will provide practical tools and guidance on data sharing. Watch this space for news of the EDCTP Knowledge Hub.
Our Scientific Symposium, 'Data sharing for global research good', focused on specific data-sharing case studies across multiple infectious and neglected tropical diseases. Dr Paul Sondo, TDR fellow from the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro in Burkina Faso*, presented WWARN's experience generating reliable evidence from IPD meta-analyses using examples from our Molecular Scientific Group and antimalarial analyses lead by our West Africa Regional Centre. Elizabeth Allen, Senior Scientist in our Southern Africa Regional Hub, presented the latest additions to the WWARN Malaria Toolkit - freely available tools to support researchers to plan, execute, analyse and report antimalarial trials. Liz highlighted the latest additions:
- Guideline for the collection of ECG data
- Malaria CDISC Therapeutic User Guide (TAUG-malaria)
- CDISC annotated case record form
- Template REDCap database.
View the latest toolkit resources
Dr Paul Sondo, TDR fellow presents WWARN's experience generating reliable evidence from IPD meta-analyses (left), credit: EDCTP forum.
Elizabeth Allen, Senior Scientist at WWARN, presents WWARN's Malaria Toolkit (right).
Building on the learning shared by WWARN, colleagues presented their data-sharing strategies for a number of new IDDO research themes including Ebola and Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL). Michael Ochieng Otieno at DNDi presented IDDO's VL research theme alongside Dr Mahamoud Sama Cherif, EDCTP-TDR fellow, who explained the key steps taken to create an equitable governance framework for IDDO's Ebola research theme.
Dr Mahamoud Sama Cherif presenting his poster on creating an equitable governance framework for IDDO's Ebola research theme, credit: EDCTP forum.
*TDR is the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, hosted by the World Health Organization. TDR Fellows spend 12 months working with WWARN and IDDO on special projects.