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Abstract
Background: Research outputs in sub-Saharan Africa may be limited by a scarcity of clinical research expertise. In Zambia, clinical and biomedical postgraduate students are often delayed in graduation due to challenges in completing their research dissertations. We sought to strengthen institutional research capacity by supporting student and faculty researchers through weekly epidemiology and biostatistics clinics.
Methods: We instituted a weekly Analytical Support Clinic at the University of Zambia, School of Medicine. A combination of biostatisticians, clinical researchers and epidemiologists meet weekly with clients to address questions of proposal development, data management and analysis. Clinic sign-in sheets were reviewed.
Results: 109 students and faculty members accounted for 197 visits to the Clinic. Nearly all clients (107/109, 98.2%) were undergraduate or postgraduate students. Reasons for attending the Clinic were primarily for proposal development (46.7%) and data management/analysis (42.1%). The most common specific reasons for seeking help were data analysis and interpretation (36.5%), development of study design and research questions (26.9%) and sample size calculation (21.8%).
Conclusions: The Analytical Support Clinic is an important vehicle for strengthening postgraduate research through one-on-one and small group demand-driven interactions. The clinic approach supplements mentorship from departmental supervisors, providing specific expertise and contextual teaching.
Declaration of interest: The implementation of the UNZA SOM Analytical Support Clinic was made possible by financial support from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Fogarty International Center (FIC) through the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), 1R24TW008873-04, and is subject to the NIH online access policy. The UNZA SOM Research Support Centre was established with support from the Welcome Trust’s Southern African Consortium for Research Excellence (SACORE). UNZA SOM received support for the MMed research methods course from OGAC and the NIH/FIC through the Vanderbilt University-CIDRZ AIDS International Training Research Program (AITRP), D43TW001035-16.