University of Washingtom: SCIENCE TAKES ACTION
Home to the world’s first Ph.D. program in implementation science, the School of Public Health is helping turn research into action to interrupt the transmission of parasitic worms in developing countries.
FOR TWO BILLION PEOPLE ACROSS THE PLANET, THESE SYMPTOMS ARE PART OF DAILY LIFE.
They’re part of sitting in class, trying to learn. They’re part of going to work, trying to provide. They’re part of living with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) — more commonly known as intestinal worms — inhabiting victims’ bellies, sapping their nutrients, and stunting their physical and cognitive development.
In countries where the disease is prevalent, soil-transmitted helminths have long been a public health problem and a human rights issue — and the UW School of Public Health is doing something about it. Researchers are playing a leading role in DeWorm3, a project coordinated by the Natural History Museum in London and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. DeWorm3 is providing the platform for one of the largest implementation science projects in the field to date. Its core mission? To interrupt the transmission of intestinal worms.
It’s here in the Department of Global Health, in partnership with the School of Medicine, that the first-ever Ph.D. program in metrics and implementation science is transforming the way people approach population health to improve lives. Implementation science is also key to the UW’s Population Health Initiative, launched in 2016 with the goal of improving human health, environmental resilience and social and economic equity around the world.
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Starting in 2017, at the end of the lymphatic filariasis programs in these countries, DeWorm3 will randomly assign communities to either maintain the standard program of only treating preschool- and school-aged children for intestinal worms, or go to a highly intensive treatment plan where they treat everyone in the community twice per year. And they will conduct further implementation science research activities along the way to understand best practices in intervention delivery and opportunities to maximize community participation. In 2020, both types of communities will stop all treatment. Two years later, DeWorm3 will compare the groups and determine whether the intensified treatment program was more successful. If so, they’ll work with policymakers to develop relevant guidelines that could be used to bring the intensified intervention to scale.
Collaboration is the key to it all, says Means, who plans to continue working with DeWorm3 after earning her Ph.D. from the School of Public Health this year. “In each country, there’s a really passionate and amazing group of partners who are helping implement this work. It’s really rewarding to be sitting in a room full of people from all over the world who are all working toward the same goal.”
Starting in 2017, at the end of the lymphatic filariasis programs in these countries, DeWorm3 will randomly assign communities to either maintain the standard program of only treating preschool- and school-aged children for intestinal worms, or go to a highly intensive treatment plan where they treat everyone in the community twice per year. And they will conduct further implementation science research activities along the way to understand best practices in intervention delivery and opportunities to maximize community participation. In 2020, both types of communities will stop all treatment. Two years later, DeWorm3 will compare the groups and determine whether the intensified treatment program was more successful. If so, they’ll work with policymakers to develop relevant guidelines that could be used to bring the intensified intervention to scale.
Collaboration is the key to it all, says Means, who plans to continue working with DeWorm3 after earning her Ph.D. from the School of Public Health this year. “In each country, there’s a really passionate and amazing group of partners who are helping implement this work. It’s really rewarding to be sitting in a room full of people from all over the world who are all working toward the same goal.”
University of Washingtom: SCIENCE TAKES ACTION
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Reviewed by Humana Digital Media
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