Prof. Gavin Churchyard, CEO; Mr. Arshad Hassim, CFO; and Dr. Violet Chihota, Chief Specialist Scientist of the Aurum Institute, visited VUMC from August 21st to August 25th. Their visit strengthens the ongoing collaborative partnership between the two institutions, which is focused on research and global health. Included in the visit were a variety of strategic planning meetings, programmatic evaluations, and a presentation at ID Grand Rounds by Dr. Violet Chihota.
Aurum’s projects and programs cover a wide range of activities from programmatic implementation and technical assistance for HIV/AIDS and TB prevention, care and treatment services throughout the health system in South Africa, HIV prevention clinical research studies, TB and HIV vaccine studies, to large scale TB prevention programs. Aurum’s experience in TB case finding, and TB contact tracing is extensive, from implementation research to practical approaches embedded in public health programs.