The Department’s health policy efforts extend beyond U.S. borders to improve the health of communities around the globe.
Our faculty are conducting epidemiological research in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, working to inform the health care system in the Middle East, and recently have established new agreements to study aspects of public health in South America.
Our global health work engenders sustainable, scalable health and development programs in resource-limited settings through multidisciplinary approaches rooted in innovative research and capacity-building initiatives. Leading these efforts is Professor Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH, the Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. As a member of the Lancet Nigeria Commission, Dr. Aliyu and fellow Commissioners recently published a comprehensive roadmap for improved health services in Nigeria through a whole-of-government and multi-sectoral approach. This work has influenced the prioritization of public investment in health as an avenue to social and economic prosperity for all Nigerians. Dr. Aliyu’s ongoing NIH-funded research work is focused on preventing chronic kidney disease in persons living with HIV and investigating the etiology of microalbuminuria in HIV-positive adults. He is also leading several NIH-funded training grants on HIV-associated non-communicable diseases, biostatistics, and research administration.
In 2022, Dr. Aliyu was honored with the inaugural VUMC Endowed Directorship in Global Health in recognition of his contributions to growing global health discovery, education and service at Vanderbilt and partner institutions across the globe.
The Department is also piloting a program to train traditional practitioners in community-based HIV counseling and testing in rural South Africa. Associate Professor Carolyn Audet, PhD, a medical anthropologist and epidemiologist specializing in implementation and dissemination science in global health settings, leads this work. Dr. Audet was recently appointed the Associate Director of Research at VIGH and the Associate Director of the Center for Clinical Quality and Implementation Research. Dr. Audet is also working with traditional healers to ensure they use personal protective equipment (latex gloves, surgical masks) when seeing patients to reduce the risk of HIV, HBV, and COVID acquisition.
Dr. Audet has developed a community and clinic-based system to engage male partners in antenatal care to increase the uptake of services among pregnant women, including HIV testing and treatment, hospital delivery, and post-natal care services in Nigeria and Mozambique. To engage male partners, she has led several studies designed to encourage behavior-change through the de-stigmatizing of negative gender roles, the incorporation of traditional birth attendants into the health system, and changes in clinical flow, including the inclusion of male partners in antenatal care visits. She is also currently the principal investigator of a NIMH grant entitled “Partners-Based HIV Treatment for Seroconcordant Couples attending ANC,” a novel strategy to deliver HIV medications to HIV-infected couples in rural Mozambique.
Assistant Professor Marie Martin, PhD, MEd, serves as Associate Director for Education and Training in VIGH and has been instrumental in her mentorship and teaching duties both in the Department’s academic programs, and public health training programs in South America western Africa, specifically Liberia, Zambia, and Peru.
Dr. Martin co-leads a grant that aims to improve the training of health care providers in Zambia and Liberia through a cooperative grant between Yale University and Vanderbilt. In 2023, Martin joined Dr. Don Brady, vice dean of Academic Affairs in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The “BRIDGE-U: Applying Research for a Healthy Liberia (BRIDGE-U: Liberia)” advances research utilization by developing research skills among Liberia’s current and future health sciences students, faculty, clinicians, policymakers, and entrepreneurs; and strengthens institutional systems at the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS). Dr. Martin has also conducted significant work in Zambia to build policy and advocacy skills for clinicians committed to hepatitis B.
Policy Impact
The work of the VIGH faculty have influenced policy across Africa, including at the national level and in small, rural community settings. The Lancet Nigeria Commission project has highlighted how inadequate investments in health have contributed to poor health outcomes for Nigerian citizens. The report presents a wide-ranging and practical roadmap for Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, to boost investment in health resources and ensure access to quality and equitable health care to its citizens. Recommendations from this study have led to recent changes in Nigeria’s health insurance laws that will expand coverage to all Nigerians, including those who cannot afford the premiums.
In Mozambique, Dr. Audet’s work has strongly impacted policy of HIV care and treatment in Mozambique, changing the way the national government engages with traditional practitioners throughout the country. And in South Africa, Dr. Audet has produced evidence that has led to the Department of Health to identify traditional healers as high-risk populations and allow those caregivers access to personal protective equipment, which can reduce the risk of transmission of disease and improve overall public health.