Community Health/Traditional Medicine in Rural Southern Africa

Dr. Audet's research studies the link between traditional medicine and allopathic health systems. Research opportunities will involve developing a better understanding of health care utilization, the implications on patient and provider health, and strategies for integration. 

General themes would pertain to investigating the delay between accessing biomedical healers and physicians and first going to traditional or folk healers among Mozambican and South African populations. She has also worked to integrate traditional and folk healers into the biomedical public health infrastructure as points of contact for directing symptomatic patients to clinical care. Research in this area would focus on improving uptake of treatments for various illnesses (largely HIV) in uninformed, or undiagnosed, but symptomatic populations in the given locations.