29 August 2011 | Geneva |
Evidence from operational research projects can help pave the way for ensuring many more people have access to vital TB health services. It can achieve this by shedding new light on how current TB polices and practices can be 'fine-tuned' and further improved. It can also give important insight on how best new tools for TB, currently in development, can be introduced in ways that deliver maximum benefits.
Priorities in operational research to improve tuberculosis care and control describes the current areas where gaps in knowledge are hindering the optimal implementation of TB control activities and how these obstacles can be removed. The document has been designed for national TB control programmes and research institutions in countries with a high burden of TB and gives guidance on operational research issues, how to develop, conduct and strengthen operational research projects, and how to raise resources for this area of work.
The wide dissemination and use of this publication is expected to bring about improvements in current programme research that could ultimately result in better evidence-based global policy and local practice. The new publication features a list of the critical questions that must be addressed to improve TB care and control at the community, national, regional and international levels together with a synopsis of a suitable study design and the methods required to identify and test suitable solutions.
Its publication comes in the wake of commitments from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) to increase the uptake of operational research proposals for TB in order to maximize the impact of the Global Fund's investments. Countries are being encouraged to allocate up to 10% of total GFATM grant budgets to activities related to monitoring and evaluation, including system strengthening, data management, operational research, and programme and impact evaluation.
The document has been developed by WHO Stop TB Department, the Stop TB Partnership's Research Movement, and the GFATM.
Priorities in Operational Research to Improve Tuberculosis Care and Control
WHO
http://www.who.int/tb/features_archive/operational_research_priorities/en/index.html