The goal of this proposal is to promote and increase research training and the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for global health research (GHR) within Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as well as Africa, leveraging the experience, networks and developments accomplished through the Fogarty funded program QUIPU: The Andean Global Health Informatics Research and Training Center and our Global Health Program.
The specific aims of our proposal Runachay: Information and Communication Technologies for Global Health Research and Research Training are to: 1) Develop the Runachay e-platform to implement short and medium term e-learning opportunities in Spanish on research and the use of ICT for GHR 2) Engage researchers in innovative, mentored global health research that incorporates the use of ICT to solve problems of local and global relevance; 3) Expand and consolidate the collaborative research network established at QUIPU from 8 LA countries to all Spanish-speaking countries in LAC and Africa, promoting south to south collaborations. Runachay is a quechua word meaning reaching and educating people, and will complement the activities on training and research we have been doing in the past years in Peru, Latin America and even in Africa (Equatorial Guinea), allowing us to reach more people even in other continents, through the use of ICTs. The program will include the development of three levels of training opportunities (1) Short Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in Spanish on basic topics related to research as: Epidemiology, Data management and statistics, Introduction to ICTs in Global Health Research, Information systems and health research, and Internet-based intervention research. We will include in the platform a recently developed course on Responsible Conduct of Research in Spanish which was funded through an administrative supplement to our QUIPU grant. (2) Medium-term interactive online courses that will include mentor interaction (3) Practicums and mentored research awards, which will provide students/researchers and opportunity of hands-on experience in the use of ICT in research (e.g. surveys using cell phones or internet based intervention among others). One of the greatest strengths of this proposal is the critical mass and solid experience in training and research in Global Health Informatics at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), as well as the mature history of collaboration between UPCH and researchers of other countries, including LAC countries members of the QUIPU network that will bring their expertise and practicum opportunities to this program.
To achieve health equity in a global world, we need to narrow the digital divide in e-learning opportunities in research between the English-speaking North and the Spanish-speaking South. We propose to promote and increase research training and the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for global health research within Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa through the Runachay Program (Runachay is a quechua word meaning 'reaching and educating people'). This Program will leverage the experience, networks and developments accomplished through the Fogarty funded program QUIPU: The Andean Global Health Informatics Research and Training Center and our Global Health Program.
| Johnson, Caroline M; Molina, Yamile; Blas, Magaly et al. (2018) ""The disease is mine, the body is mine, I decide"": Individual, interpersonal, and institutional barriers and facilitators among survivors of women's cancers in Andean countries. Health Care Women Int 39:522-535 |
