Building sustainable operational research capacity in Pakistan: starting with tuberculosis and expanding to other public health problems

ABSTRACT

Background: For many years, operational research capacity has been a challenge and has remained a low priority for the health sector in Pakistan. Building research capacity for developing a critical mass of researchers in Pakistan was done through Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) courses in Paris and Asia between 2010 and 2016.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe the journey of SORT-IT in Pakistan from its inception to progressive expansion and discuss the challenges and ways forward.

Methods: The journey began with the training of the Pakistan NTP research team lead in 2010 in an international SORT IT course at Paris. This was followed by training of two team members in Asia SORT IT courses in 2014 and 2015. These three then worked together to conceive and implement the first national Pakistan SORT IT course supported by WHO/TDR and the Global Fund in 2016. This was facilitated by international facilitators and local trained SORT-IT participants from Paris and Asia. This was followed by two further national SORT IT courses in 2017 and 2018.

Results: Between 2010 and 2017, a total of 34 participants from Pakistan had been enrolled in national and international SORT IT courses. Of the 23 participants from completed courses, 18(78%) successfully completed the course. In total 18 papers were submitted and up until June 2018, 15(83%) have been published and 21 institutions in Pakistan involved with operational research as a result of the SORT IT initiative.

Conclusions: The SORT IT course has been an effective way to build operational research capacity at national level and this has resulted in a large number of published papers providing local evidence for decision making on TB and other disease control programmes. The experience from Pakistan should stimulate other countries to adopt the SORT-IT model.

KEYWORDS:

• SORT-IT
• operational research
• capacity building
• Pakistan
• Tuberculosis

Responsible Editor Peter Byass, Umeå University, Sweden

Responsible Editor Peter Byass, Umeå University, Sweden

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted through the Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT), a global partnership led by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO/TDR). The training model is based on a course developed jointly by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union, Paris, France) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Geneva, Switzerland).

The specific programme that resulted in this publication was conducted by the National Tuberculosis Control Programme of Pakistan, through the support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund, Geneva, Switzerland).

The Union and University of Bergen for technical support. We highly acknowledged the support of Werner Buehler (Funds Portfolio Manager The Global Fund, Pakistan), and the National TB Control Program including Prof. Brig. Aamer Ikram (Common Unit (HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria)), Dr. Nasir Mahmood (National Program Manager, NTP) and Dr. Aurangzaib Quadir (Deputy Coordinator, NTP) in implementation of first national SORT IT Course in Pakistan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics and consent

Not applicable. This was a descriptive non-research paper describing the journey of SORT-IT in Pakistan from its inception to progressive expansion and discuss the challenges and policy implications.

Paper context

The operational research capacity building has been a major challenge in a country therefore, it is important to describe the successful journey of Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT-IT) in Pakistan from inception to progressive expansion and discuss the challenges and the associated policy implication in Pakistan from various publications generated through this initiative. The experience from Pakistan course can be utilized as an example for other countries to adopt SORT-IT model.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria and Special Programme for research and training in tropical diseases (WHO-TDR) for funding the national Pakistan SORT-IT courses. The publication fee is covered by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO-TDR).

Notes on contributors

Aashifa Yaqoob

RF and AY conceived the paper idea and co-led the development of initial drafts of the paper. All authors were engaged in the implementation of the course, provided insights into manuscript development, and reviewed and approved the manuscript for publication.