Dr.Olive giving her closing remark to the participants
Written by Joseph Odoi
From 17th-21st February 2020, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) successfully organized a 5 day course on Evidence Based Public Health in Kampala, Uganda. The purpose of the course was to raise Public Health leaders who can be able to translate knowledge into evidence to inform policy
Speaking at the closing ceremony , Dr. Olive Kobusingye the PI of the Research Task 4 (RT4) Project which hosted the training in a special way congratulated the 23 participants for resilience, interest and excelling in the Programme.
She noted that Public Health problems are on the rise with undisputed evidence required to implement interventions yet there is a shortage of experts in the field of evidence generation and collation.
Moving forward, Dr.Kobusingye tasked the participants to put into practice the skills they had acquired and perhaps train other people so as to accelerate an evidence based approach towards Public Health decision making in the country and beyond.
She also thanked the course facilitators namely ; Dr Ann Akiteng; Mr. Bonny Balugaba, Ms. Esther Bayiga; Jimmy Osuret for their commitment towards the course.
During the Course, the former Director General Health Services at the Uganda Ministry of Health - Prof Anthony Mbonye tipped the participants on how to translate research knowledge into evidence adding that they should embrace North- South collaboration
Ninsiima Mackline, a Master of Health Services Research (MHSR) Student at MakSPH was grateful for the course as she had this to say
‘’I have honestly attained competencies in conducting evidence based research, evaluation of public Health interventions and translation of research into public policy ,great thanks to the facilitating team’’
David Okello a graduate of MHSR from MakSPH noted that he learnt basic steps involved in writing a systematic review and interpretation of results.
‘’I really gained a lot and I recommend the team to continue carrying it out to other researchers,’’ he added passionately
Jimmy Osuret, one of the Facilitators of the training noted that every participant is expected to be able to translate knowledge into research to inform policy, formulate research questions ,appraise research articles and lastly understand research designs and apply them.
More about Evidence Public Health Training
During the training, Participants were introduced to the EBPH principles; phrasing clear questions; accessing evidence; study designs; critical appraisal; interpreting results; and evidence use in Policy.
The course was fully sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+) project. The course admitted 23 participants competitively and these graduated after fulfilling all course requirements. The course was conducted using a blended approach of on-line activities (Moodle); presentations; and group activities.
