Student Engagement

Many 2019 GEMS are actively recruiting a diverse set of Hopkins students to work internationally at their field sites. Below are brief descriptions of the sites and types of students being sought. 

To participate students must dedicate a minimum of 6 weeks international field work. Students from all Hopkins schools are eligible but they must be continuing students (that is, they may not be graduating in Spring, 2019). 

SOUTH AFRICA

Developing a contingency management program for smoking cessation for people with HIV and/or TB
Faculty Leadership: Jonathan Golub, Mario Macis, Kate Smith, Alain Labrique

Currently seeking the following student team members: 

Nursing Student. The selected student will travel to South Africa over the summer or fall of 2019 to complete the project. Our overall objective is to develop a novel, patient-oriented mHealth system consisting of two-way text messaging and contingency management to augment standard smoking cessation therapy among PWH and/or TB in South Africa. Our approach will involve JHU students working with in-country research staff under the guidance of JHU and South African mentors with expertise in HIV/TB, behavioral economics, epidemiology, clinical trials, qualitative research, tobacco cessation, and development of mHealth systems. We will conduct a qualitative assessment in our research setting of key populations (PWH, clinic workers, programmatic staff), develop an mHealth application for interacting with and incentivizing participants, and pilot the mHealth application in 50 participants thereby validating our planned intervention.  To develop such a project, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to develop the rationale, structure the incentives to maximize their efficacy in addressing behavioral barriers, and assess the key populations to inform development of the mHealth application. This comprehensive approach will engage a team of students trained in various disciplines, and the selected nursing student will work with students from the School of Public Health and the Carey Business School. S/he will liaise with South African nurses, who will ultimately be the gatekeepers of this project when scaled up, as well as help manage the implementation of the formal pilot study. The student team will work together in the months preceding their stay in South Africa to help develop formative qualitative research tools and the implementation tools. The student from the School of Nursing will be responsible for providing clinical context, understanding of patient-clinician interaction, and clinician responsibility and workload.

Public Health. The selected student will travel to South Africa over the summer or fall of 2019 to complete the project. Our overall objective is to develop a novel, patient-oriented mHealth system consisting of two-way text messaging and contingency management to augment standard smoking cessation therapy among PWH and/or TB in South Africa. Our approach will involve JHU students working with in-country research staff under the guidance of JHU and South African mentors with expertise in HIV/TB, behavioral economics, epidemiology, clinical trials, qualitative research, tobacco cessation, and development of mHealth systems. We will conduct a qualitative assessment in our research setting of key populations (PWH, clinic workers, programmatic staff), develop an mHealth application for interacting with and incentivizing participants, and pilot the mHealth application in 50 participants thereby validating our planned intervention.  To develop such a project, a multidisciplinary approach is needed to develop the rationale, structure the incentives to maximize their efficacy in addressing behavioral barriers, and assess the key populations to inform development of the mHealth application. This comprehensive approach will engage a team of students trained in various disciplines, and the selected public health student will work with students from the School of Nursing and the Carey Business School. The student(s) will preferably have training in the social and behavioral sciences; they will develop the qualitative research tools under the guidance of JHU mentors and conduct the qualitative research in South Africa with our established team. The student will also analyze the qualitative data which will be used to inform the pilot trial. The student team will work together in the months preceding their stay in South Africa to review the project implementation strategy and responsibilities guidelines for each member of the team. The student from the SPH will be responsible for developing qualitative research tools, conducting the qualitative research in South Africa, and analyzing the data. 

KENYA

Feasibility and acceptability of Enhanced Patient Care (EPC) for adult HIV patients with unsuppressed viral loads in western Kenya
Faculty Leadership: Becky Genberg, Juddy Wachira, Henry Perry, Htet Nay Lin Oo, Maya Venkataramani

Currently seeking the following student team members: 

Public Health or Business Student. We are seeking a public health student or business school student with interest in health economics, cost-effectiveness research and evaluation, and health care delivery in low-and middle-income settings to join our multidisciplinary team. The project is nested within the AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) HIV treatment program based in western Kenya. The student will be tasked with designing and implementing methods to gather the necessary data to conduct a cost-effectiveness evaluation of a clinic-based intervention designed to bring patient-centered care to adult patients who are experiencing difficulties with ART adherence and have unsuppressed viral loads, compared to the standard of care model. Students will be invited to participate in data analysis if feasible within the timeline of the project.

Clinical Resident/Fellow or Nursing Student. We are seeking a resident or fellow, or advanced nursing student, with interest in patient-centered care, patient/provider communication, and differentiated care models for improving HIV outcomes in low- and middle-income settings. The project is nested within the AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) HIV treatment program based in western Kenya. The project involves the development of materials to support implementation of a clinic-based intervention designed to bring patient-centered care to adult patients with HIV who are experiencing difficulties with ART adherence and have unsuppressed viral load. The clinical trainee will be tasked with liaising with the existing care delivery teams to gather information for the development of all necessary materials in support of the intervention implementation. This effort will require collaboration with the clinical teams at AMPATH that are responsible for the delivery of care in the intervention clinics. Tasks will include participation in the development of standardized manuals, training materials, and any forms necessary to ensure fidelity to the intervention by the clinical staff. In addition, should the timelines correspond to project launch dates, the trainees would be asked to participate in the training of clinicians in the intervention clinics.