Africa mHealth Research Institute (AMHRI): mHealth Workshop

Adeyinka Adefolarin, PhD
University of Ibadan
Nigeria

Dr Adeyinka Adefolarin is a health promotion/education researcher and a mental health social worker. She has interest in the development, adaptation, and validation of mhealth in African languages to address prevention and promotion in the fields of mental health, HIV/AIDS, maternal-child health, nutritional health, population health and school health. During her PhD study, she developed and validated print-converted electronic maternal depression education materials in three Nigerian languages.

Esther Atukunda, PhD
Mbarara University of Science and Technology
Uganda

Esther Buregyeya, PhD
Makerere University School of Public Health
Uganda

I am a Ugandan physician trained in public health and a research expert in disease control. I hold a PhD in medical sciences from University of Antwerp, Belgium. I have a strong background in field research with 15 years of experience in designing and implementing community and facility based research, mainly in TB and HIV. I am a Senior Lecturer and Chair for the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, where I teach communicable and non-communicable disease control interventions. I am also a One Health Focal Person on the One Health Central and Eastern Africa/One Health Workforce Project (OHCEA/OHWF), a project that is championing the training in One Health approach in academia. I have interest in the use of mHealth technologies to improve linkage to care and retention patients.  Am currently working on a pilot study, entitled ‘Mobile Phone-Based Directly Observed Therapy (VDOT): A Novel Approach to Treatment Monitoring for Tuberculosis Patients in Uganda.’ Preliminary findings from this pilot show that VDOT is highly acceptable compared to in person DOT and has shown promise in improving adherence to TB treatment. 

Milka Gesicho, MSc. BSc.
University of Bergen
Kenya

Milka Bochere Gesicho is a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen (UIB), and a member of the Norwegian Research School of Global Health (NRSGH). She is also affiliated to Moi University, through the HI-TRAIN project. She holds a BSc. In Business Information Technology (BBIT), and an MSc. In Information Technology (IT). Her research is in the Health Informatics (HI) field, and focuses on identifying factors influencing efficiency in meeting the reporting process requirements for HIV indicator data. Her research aims to contribute to strengthening monitoring and evaluation (M&E) efforts within the health system in Kenya through diagnosis of problematic areas that need improvement.

Jesse Gitaka, MBChB, MTropMed, PhD
Mount Kenya University
Kenya

Jesse is a Kenyan board registered medical doctor trained at University of Nairobi, a holder of Masters of Tropical Medicine and PhD in Medical Science from Nagasaki University, Japan. His experience spans clinical practice and trials, molecular biology and epidemiology of malaria, field based research, lecturing and implementation science. Currently, he is a Principal Investigator in 8 studies in the areas of maternal and newborn health (MNH) and infectious diseases point of care diagnostics development and antimicrobial resistance surveillance. Specifically, his current work is on development of point of care diagnostics and mhealth solutions for maternal and newborn health.

Eliphas Gitonga, PhD
Public Health
Kenya

Dr. Eliphas Gitonga Makunyi is a lecturer at Kenyatta University, school of public health. He holds BSc. Nursing (Moi University), MPH (Kenyatta University), MSc. in Medical Physiology (University of Nairobi) and PhD, Reproductive health (Kenyatta University). His research interests and publications are in mobile health, maternal health, and public health. He is currently supervising /examining post graduate students in area of public health, health information system and reproductive health. He lectures in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with main areas being maternal health, health informatics, public health policy, health management and adolescent health.

Grace Atieno Jalang'o, MPH
Diabetes
Kenya

Ms Atieno Jalang’o is a Senior Clinical officer (Diabetes and Public health specialist). She is a Lecturer at the Kabarak University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

She holds a Bsc in Clinical Medicine and a Fellowship in Diabetes care from University College - London. She has over 18 years’ experience in Diabetes care, lifestyle/chronic disease care and education. She holds a master’s degree in public health (Health Promotion and Education). She is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Education.

She is a member of The East African Diabetes Study group, Kenya Diabetes study group and the National Secretary of Diabetes Kenya. She has been a regular speaker at the World Diabetes Congress.

Patrick Kaggwa, Masters
Makerere University
Uganda

Patrick is an MSc candidate of health informatics at Makerere University School of public health with a first degree in computer science. He is a systems/network Administrator at the directorate of ICT support Makerere University. Patrick has vast knowledge in Linux open source artifact development and implementation, Data analytics using R and python and machine learning techniques in model building. Patrick has developed various data collection tools for various public health projects. Patrick currently is also IT specialist on Makerere Mhealth project aimed at assessing university student health-related behaviors. Patrick is interested in improving mhealth research and applying health informatics in different fields of health to improve healthcare.

Sarah Karanja, M.A.
Arnref Health Africa
Kenya

Sarah Karanja is a Medical Sociologist by training. She has more than ten years of experience in research in the areas of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. Sarah currently works with Amref Health Africa in Kenya as the research focal person and her main responsibility is in building the capacity of staff in developing research products such as research proposals, abstracts, manuscripts and policy briefs, coordinating research projects and ensuring there is scientific rigour in all evaluations. In addition, she Heads the Amref Health Africa, Ethics and Scientific Review Committee (ESRC).

Fredrick Karambiz Kateera MBChB, Msc, PhD
Partners In Health
Rwanda

Hae-Young Kim, PhD, MPH
Africa Health Research Institute
South Africa

Her research interest is to understand epidemiological and behavioral mechanisms to prevent HIV and TB transmission and improve population-health outcomes among women, young adults, and marginalized populations by implementing patient-centered and innovative intervention programs. In her research, she uses multi-disciplinary approaches including epidemiology, health services, and health economics. She was awarded her PhD in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and MPH from Columbia University. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow at Africa Health Research Institute, Durban, South Africa. 

Steven W. Macharia, PhD
Software Engineering and Health Informatics
Kenya

Steven Wanyee Macharia, is a digital health specialist with over 20 years years experience designing, developing, implementing, supporting, maintaining and using digital health interventions in research for health (RCTs mainly) and health service delivery in low and medium income countries. Born in Kenya and currently working out of Nairobi, Steven's work in digital health has seen him support direct service delivery as well as top level planning, management, strategy and policy functions in the health sector. His work has seen him directly work in and support more than 10 countries across Africa. Globally, he continues to work with leading multi-agency, multi-lateral donor, development and implementing organizations including WHO, World Bank, USAID, CDC, GIZ, DFiD among others. He serves on several global informatics initiatives including the Digital Health and Interoperability Working Group of the Health Data Collaboratives mechanism. He is the Secretary of the Health Informatics in Africa (HELINA); He is a Board member of the OpenMRS Community of Practice; He is a co-founder and current Secretary General of the Kenya Health Informatics Association (KeHIA). He is a member of OpenHIE Community Of Practice and serves on several Ministry of Health Working Groups across East Africa. Steven is a holder of a Masters degree in software engineering and post graduate training in health informatics, and currently a PhD candidate in Biomedical and Health Informatics. His research interests broadly is in the science of implementing digital health solutions.

Sibomana Louis, PhD
Telecommunication Systems
Rwanda

Dr Louis Sibomana obtained his PhD degree in Telecommunication Systems and has published several research papers both in high level international conferences and peer reviewed journal articles.  His research interests include ICT applications such as e-Government and e-Health. Currently, Dr Louis is a Lecturer School of Engineering University of Rwanda and a researcher at the Regional Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and e-Health (CEBE). He is leading a research project titled: Strengthening Research capacity and Expertise in Digital Health (2019-2024) funded by SIDA, Sweden under the University of Rwanda-Sweden research raining partnership programme.

Dennis Magu, PhD
JKUAT
Kenya

I am competent Senior Researcher/ Senior Lecturer in public health. I develop and coordinate suitable innovative medical research and health care delivery to exceed emerging issues in diseases to achieve the national development goals through research. Am a Public Health, M&E Specialist, Epidemiologist and a Fellowship of HIV Global leadership. I have handled several national research such as; County health workers capacity to acquire, summarize and adopt research evidence for decision making processes among others. Research findings have been presented in national and international forums.

Robert Makori, KRCHN, BScN, MSc, Nurse Practitioner
Kenyatta National Hospital
Kenya

Has a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Aga Khan, Kenya and a Master’s degree in Oncology Nursing from the University of Nairobi. He was a midterm fellow in the University of Washington undertaking monitoring and evaluation programme. Robert has gained a vast amount of experience in nursing, in both private and public settings over 15 years. Robert has worked in Kenyatta National Hospital in different departments that includes Medical wards, Accident and Emergency department and currently in Cancer Treatment Centre as a clinical Oncology nurse specialist. Since then he has progressed up the training and career ladder within the Hospital system. Robert is attracted to assignments that allow for a high degree of contact with people, requires a lot of creative thinking and innovation to spot new opportunities. The chance to be of service to organizations, and to watch them transform relates to this interest pattern, which he is passionate about. He has a lot of passion for working with communities to empower, build capacity and collaboration for cancer prevention and control. Currently he is engaged in implementing Patient Navigation Programme in partnership with American Cancer Society in Kenyatta National Hospital of Kenya.

Tom Marwa, PhD
Jhpiego
Kenya

Experienced Public health and Health Researcher with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management and corporate industry. Skilled in Epidemiology, Monitoring and Evaluation, Biomedical/Health Research, HIV/STI Prevention, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Proposal Writing, and Global Health. Strong program and project management professional with a Ph.D focused in Biomedical Epidemiology and Public Health.

Victoria Mukami, MSc, BSc
Africa Nazarene University
Kenya

Victoria is a Computer Science lecturer and PhD candidate at the Durban University of Technology. She has an MSc. in Information System Technologies and a BSc. in Computer Technology. Victoria has focused her PhD work on lowering maternal and neonatal mortality, through the use of mobile technologies. She conducted a randomized multi-location clinical trial with expectant women in Kajiado, Kenya. She is a passionate believer in harnessing the power of innovative technology to mitigate challenges within the health scene. Her research interests are in mHealth and health informatics.

Elizabeth Muli, MSC
The Technical University of Kenya
Kenya

Elizabeth Muli is a PhD Computer Science student in the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Nairobi. She is also a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the Technical University of Kenya. Elizabeth holds a Bsc Computer Science – First Class Honors from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi. One of her research areas is Health Informatics largely use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in provision of health care. She is keen on the ethical dilemmas and how to we can bring some sense of balance amid the benefits and risks of AI technology.

Esther Nabakwe, M.B.Ch.B, PhD
MOI University
Kenya

I am a pediatrician in department of child health and pediatrics, Moi University with PhD in anthropology and human ecology. My experience includes: proposal writing, data collection and analysis, writing reports, scientific papers and policy briefs. My thesis on ‘’socio-cultural, health care and nutritional perspectives of exclusive breastfeeding among HIV infected mothers in Busia County, western Kenya demonstrated the importance of triangulation by multidisciplinary and mixed methods research of pediatrics, social sciences and human nutrition. Further training in mHealth research methodologies will not only enhance my research skills but translate into a multiplying effect through the students whom I teach.

Kagiso Ndlovu, PhD Candidate
University of Botswana
Botswana

Computer Science Lecturer and Coordinator of the eHealth Research Unit at the University of Botswana. Over 7 years experience in health informatics and mHealth projects in Botswana, with specific training in socio-informatics, Computer Science and Project Management. Previously served as Project Manager for the implementation and scale-up of an mHealth solution under the Botswana Ministry of Health, a research lead on a telemedicine project funded by Microsoft Corporation, utilizing Television (TV) White Space technology to augment traditional broadband internet connectivity within healthcare facilities in Botswana and currently coordinating research for a national school eye screening program (PEEK) which was piloted on over 12,000 school going kids in Botswana. Am part of a team which completed the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded Grant for Informatics and Telemedicine in Botswana.

Njeri Ngaruiya, PhD
Technical University of Kenya
Kenya

Njeri Ngaruiya is a young researcher in Information Systems for ICT4D and a PhD student at University of Nairobi. She attained her Masters in Computer Science at University of Nairobi where her interest of sustainable and contextualized solutions was born. From then, she has grown a great interest in ICT4D and ICT4S in Health Informatics which she believes is the only way we can uphold sustainability in pursued projects. She is currently an Assistant lecturer at The Technical University of Kenya where she takes graduate students through the computer technology and information system courses. She has presented some of her research work in conferences.

Philomena Ngugi, MSc., FUoN
Moi University
Kenya

Philomena Ngugi, Assistant Lecturer, Institute of Biomedical Informatics, College of Health Sciences, Moi University, Kenya. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen, Norway undertaking a research in Electronic Medical Records systems. She is a fellow of University of Nairobi and holds a MSc. in Information Technology Management (Sunderland University, UK).  She a registered member of Kenya Health Informatics Association (KeHIA) and Norwegian Research School in Global health (NRSGH). She serves as a Research Thesis Co-ordinator in the Institute of Biomedical Informatics. Her research interests are in the utilization of ICTs in health care for better health outcomes.  

Theoneste Nkurunziza, MPH, MSc, PhD Candidate
Partners In Health
Rwanda

Mr. Nkurunziza is a self-motivated professional with ten years of experience in progressive management positions. He is a Health Research Manager at Partners In Health, Rwanda where he leads the mHealth/telemedicine projects. His experience includes managing health program/ start-up projects and operational researches. He focuses on quantitative and longitudinal studies including randomized control trials. Mr. Nkurunziza is a Doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, Germany; and holds Masters’ degrees in Global Health Delivery and in Public Health. He has more than ten publications with interest in health systems strengthening, access to surgical care, and maternal and child health.

Henry Nsubuga, MSc. IPHC, M. A Counseling, B. A Philosophy
Makerere University
Uganda

Henry Nsubuga is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has vast experience and training in public health, primary health care and mental health. He is counseling Psychologist and has practiced for over 12 years in various settings where he has managed, practiced psychotherapy and trained counseling. Henry Nsubuga has been principal investigator for a number of studies in the area of reproductive health and mental health. His work has been published and is well sought for internationally. Currently Henry is PI for a Makerere university based study using mobile technology named “Makmobilehealth project.”

Job Nyangena Nyameino, MB.ChB, MSc
Moi University
Kenya

I'm a medic and digital health professional who is deeply interested in all aspects of technology and how it can be leveraged to improve the quality of health service delivery in Africa.

Moses Nyongesa, Masters, PhD Candidate
Centre for Geographic Medicine Research Coast
Kenya

Moses Kachama Nyongesa, MSc. Global Mental Health, is based at the Centre for Geographic Medicine Research (Coast), Kilifi, Kenya. His major research interest is studying mental problems comorbid with HIV infection among adolescents and young people, and evaluating potential mHealth based interventions targeting to address symptoms of mental problems among affected youths.

Vincent Okoth, MSc
Kenya Medical Research Institute
Kenya

Vincent Okoth is a Kenyan Research Scientist with a passion for building sustainable community development solutions. He has a BSc (Biomedical Science) and MSc (Medical Virology). His role at KEMRI’s Office of Grantsmanship & Centre for Virus Research is to support PI’s build networks and grant proposals as well building vibrant research environment and culture. He has led in-country teams of NIH (USA) funded implementation science and mHealth projects. Recently he led a team of data scientist design a quantitative analytical tool for understanding enablers and barriers of poor pregnancy outcomes in low-resource settings. He enjoys playing rugby, reading on financial independence and values personal and community growth.

Moses Okumu, HRIM, M/E
Nascop
Kenya

Am Moses Okumu, a monitoring and evaluation officer supporting HIV/AIDS epidemic control program in Western Kenya. I have worked as a health information officer in other NGOs where my work entailed data collection, cleaning, analysis and interpretation. Am a degree holder of B.Sc- Health Records and Information Management from Kenyatta University, currently finalizing MPH (M&E). I have also published articles on International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences relating to evaluations of donor projects in Kenya. My avid interest is on ICT and its capabilities to impact health information to improve the quality and efficiency of care. My mission is to apply the modern tools and systems (Artificial Intelligence-AI and Machine Learning-ML) on current and future approaches to health and their interoperability standards.

Amos Olwendo, MSc.
Medical Informatics
Rwanda

Amos is a Health Informatician and a Tutorial Fellow at the School of Public Health at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT). He began his career pursuing a BSc. In Computer Science and a MSc. in Medical Informatics. Presently, Amos is a PhD student at the Kenyatta University and research is in Computation Phenotyping of Diabetes Mellitus from EHR data. His area of interest is casual inference and application of machine learning techniques in healthcare data.   Amos has a work experience working with database technologies and data communications and networks.

Celestin Twizere, PhD
Telecommunication Engineering
Rwanda

Celestin Twizere (PhD) is a PhD holder in Engineering of Biomedical Electronics, Electromagnetism and Telecommunication from the University of Roma Tre, Italy in  2011.

In 2002, he joined the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Education and in 2006, the Department of Electrical and electronics Engineering, National University of Rwanda as an Assistant Lecturer. His research interests include Ground Penetrating Radar, Wireless Communication and Networks, Electromagnetic Radiation and Propagation and Smart Antenna for mobile Communication.

From March 2017, Celestin is the Centre Director of the Regional Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Engineering and e-Health (CEBE), an AFDB funding of around 19 million USD. The key strategy of CEBE is to position itself to operate in a knowledge creation and transfer, industry partnership, and technical service delivery ecosystem to achieve high-impact results in support of several key health sector initiatives around medical equipment and devices, rehabilitation and mobility devices, and e-health system services.

Celestin is currently interested in Telehealth applications as one of the key pillar to solve scarcity of qualified available skills and in order to bridge the gap between cities and rural areas in terms of accessibility to healthcare systems.

Beatrice Wasunna, PhD
Medic Mobile
Kenya
Beatrice is a Senior Researcher at Medic Mobile, she leads design research efforts across digital health programs in Africa and Asia. Beatrice has research interests on the role of technology in addressing primary health care challenges. Beatrice has more than a decade of experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions in resource-limited settings and has authored publications in international public health journals. She served as a research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and from 2013-2015 she was the lead module developer for the World Health Organizations’ District level Neglected Tropical Diseases course. Beatrice has also provided technical assistance to the Kenyan Ministry of Health in various projects and serves in various technical working groups within the Kenyan Ministry of Health.  Beatrice completed her Doctorate degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine supported by the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust research programme, More recently, Beatrice has also served as the regional technical advisor, providing overall technical support and leadership in the scale-up of the public-private partnership behavioral change project aimed in Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia.

Violet Naanyu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Moi University, Kenya. She serves as Co-Field Director of Research, Indiana University-Kenya Program, Eldoret; Member of the National Bioethics Committee, National Commission for Science Technology and Innovations, Kenya; Vice Chair, NeuroGAP/DEV Africa Ethics Working Group Oxford University & Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA; and Committee member, Institutional Research and Ethics Committee (IREC), Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital/Moi University School of Medicine (MUSOM), Eldoret Kenya. She holds MA Sociology (Indiana University, USA), MA Medical Anthropology (Univ. of Amsterdam, NL), and PhD in Sociology (Indiana University, USA). Her research explores individual and socio-cultural factors around illness, health and healthcare. She is particularly interested in evaluations designed to improve well-being and health care delivery in resource-limited settings. She is also passionate about mHealth and research ethics – especially in the context of African countries. 

Martin Were, MD, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Institute of Biomedical Informatics at Moi University (Kenya). He completed a B.A. in Biochemistry at Harvard University, went on to attend Harvard Medical School, and completed internal medicine residency training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Were work focus is in global health informatics. He has developed, implemented and evaluated a range of digital health solutions for the global settings including mobile health applications, electronic health record systems, unique patient identification approaches, and computerized clinical decision support systems, among others. He has also worked with on smartcard-based interoperable solutions for patient care. Dr. Were runs several capacity-building projects in Health informatics in East Africa, and has other projects in Mozambique and Nigeria. He has previously served as the co-chair of the mHealth Alliance Evidence Working Group and on the Board of Scientific Counselors at the Lister Hill Center of the National Library of Medicine (NIH).

Young Kim, PhD, MSCI, is currently an associate professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and a co-director of Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Program at Purdue University. He is also holding joint faculty appointment in the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering.  He joined Purdue University in 2007 after completing his doctoral study in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University and his postdoctoral training in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University supported by the National Cancer Institute.  His research interests include light interactions with biological tissue, mobile health technologies for global engineering, and cryptographic primitives for security.  In particular, one of his projects focuses on developing data-science approaches or data-driven technologies that can minimize hardware complexity for mHealth.  He has recently made significant progress on hyperspectral reconstruction and spectral super-resolution without using a bulky specialized system.  He also has extensive experience in study designs and rigorous data analyses.  He has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles (Google Scholar Citations: 2699 and h-index: 28).  He has trained 9 MS students, 7 PhD students, and 4 postdoctoral fellows.  He currently serves a Topical Editor of Applied Optics. 

Juliet N. Sekandi, MD, MS, DrPH., is an Assistant Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at University of Georgia. She completed medical school at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Masters of Science in Epidemiology and Health services Research at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH and Doctor of Public Health at University of Georgia. Dr. Sekandi focuses on teaching global health and implementation of mHealth interventions for low-income settings specifically to improve patient care. She is currently implementing video directly observed therapy for monitoring adherence to TB treatment for patients in Uganda.

Ms. Cassell is the Assistant Director for Collaborative Relations at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and brings over fourteen years of experience developing, managing, and directing global research and training programs, with an emphasis on building partnerships and developing capacity among VIGH partner organizations. She joined VIGH in 2007 and has been integral to the development of services and infrastructure that have supported and empowered VIGH to grow strategically and operate effectively. In her former position as the Assistant Director for Education and Training and Grant Development, she supported more than 100 international students and faculty, many of whom have progressed in their careers and are now mentoring a new generation of global health leaders. Ms. Cassell developed the Vanderbilt Institute for Research Development and Ethics (VIRDE), a month-long course focused on grant writing and grant management training for international medical and public health professionals, now entering its ninth consecutive year. VIRDE has been a key in developing and maintaining strong Vanderbilt collaborative partnerships around the world, and graduates of the VIRDE program have been remarkably successful in obtaining their own extramural grant funding. Ms. Cassell is a creative leader in enhancing global health partnerships, and has unique expertise in building research capacity in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs).

Dr. Saria Hassan is an Instructor in General Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). She is a graduate of the Massachusetts institute of Technology (BSc) and Harvard Medical School (MD). She completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at YSM. Dr. Hassan’s current research interest is in using implementation science tools to design, implement and evaluate interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk disparities world-wide. Dr. Hassan spent two years in Tanzania leading an implementation science project, in collaboration with RTI International, integrating HIV care into an opioid treatment program in Dar-Es-Salaam. She is currently the Deputy Director of the NIH/NIMHD-funded Yale-Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Disparities focused on Precision Medicine (Yale-TCC), that seeks to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases among Caribbean-descent populations. In this role, she led the design and implementation of a multi-site diabetes prevention intervention. Dr. Hassan’s current NIH/NHLBI-sponsored K12 award uses implementation science tools to inform future adaptations and scale-up of this intervention. Dr. Hassan is also involved in projects in Tanzania and in Ghana integrating hypertension management into HIV health care systems.  

Ann Wanjiru Mwangi holds a PhD from Brown University, RI, USA, two masters’ degrees (Biostatistics and Applied Statistics) from Hasselt University in Belgium and also a Bachelor of Science degree JKUAT, Kenya. She serves as Senior Lecturer and Head in the Department of Behavioural Sciences, School of Medicine, Moi University. She is involved in training and supervising undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Health Sciences. She has been a Biostatistician for the Academic Model Providing Access to Health Care (AMPATH) program for the last 12 years during which period several papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals.  She serves as a Co-leader of the AMPATH Data and Analysis Team (ADAT). Her research interests are in Causal Inference, methods for addressing bias when using observational data for clinical decision making in resource limited setting where clinical trials data are minimal, missing data and survival analysis in HIV & AIDS, Oncology and Chronic Disease among others. She is a Co-Investigator on several funded grants, including a D43 training grant, an R01 to optimize HIV treatment, and a U01 that aims to combine peers and information technology to strengthen referral networks for hypertension management in western Kenya among others within AMPATH.

Juddy Wanjiru Wachira is a lecturer at the department of Behavioral Science, School of Medicine, Moi University and a social behavioral consultant with the AMPATH program, Kenya. I hold a PhD in Health Behavior from Indiana University-USA, a Master’s degree in Public Health from Moi University-Kenya, and a Bachelor’s degree in Education Homescience and Technology from Moi University-Kenya. My research interests are centered on applying mixed methods to explore and promote uptake and utilization of HIV care in resource –limited settings. This has included identifying factors that influence uptake, adherence, and retention along the cascade of HIV care. My research work has involved understanding the interpersonal and system level factors including provider-patient dynamics and peer involvement that influence delivery of HIV care in western Kenya. I currently have a K43 award from NIMH to apply a mixed methods approach to assess the feasibility and acceptability of enhanced patient care to attain viral load suppression in western Kenya. I have also engaged in research work beyond HIV care to include other chronic diseases such as breast and cervical cancer.

William Ogallo, RPh, PhD is a research scientist at IBM Research Africa. He conducts research on the development and evaluation of a novel health information exchange platform for patient-controlled data sharing. He also does research on applied subset scanning for detecting anomalous patterns of care in electronic health records. William holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Nairobi, as well as a PhD degree in biomedical informatics from Columbia University in the City of New York. His overarching career interests lie in designing, developing, and evaluating technologies for generating and sharing insights from clinical and research data to improve quality and continuity of care.

Dr. Njuguna

Harriet Mwithaga 

Laura Povlich