COST-AFRICA - Key Persons
Jakub Gajewski is a health sociologist who has previously worked at National University of Ireland in Galway at Health Promotion Research Center. Prior to this he worked as a researcher in the Mother and Child Research Institute in Warsaw. He has been involved in several population based studies, including the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study. The aim of this study is to gain insight into young people's well-being, health behaviours and their social context. This research collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe is conducted every four years in 43 countries and regions across Europe and North America. He was also working as a researcher on several studies focusing on the impact of social factors on people living with chronic illness - particularly Type 1 Diabetes.
Job Titles:
- Medical Superintendent of the Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital
John Kachimba was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital in August 2011. Prior to this appointment, he had served as Clinical Head of the Department of Surgery at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka from 2005 until June 2011, when he was appointed Chair of the Taskforce of the new Lusaka General Hospital (later renamed after Zambia's third Republican President the late Levy Patrick Mwanawasa SC) Committee. He is Honorary Lecturer in Urology with the University of Zambia School Of Medicine, an appointment he has held since 1999. For twenty years, he has served the Ministry of Health in various capacities that have also included Consultant Urologist. On completion of Graduate training, he spent a year at the William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan as the Ministrelli Fellow in Urology working with the world-renowned Urology research team led by Dr Ananias Diokno. He is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator in Zambia
Job Titles:
- Coordinator Nijmegen International Center for Health Systems Research and Education ( NICHE )
- Economist
- Principal Investigator in the Netherlands
Dr. Rob Baltussen is an economist specialised in international health economics, with a PhD in costing and cost-effectiveness analysis. He has extensive field work experience in around 25 countries in Africa and Asia, and worked as a senior health economist at the World Health Organization. At WHO, he was responsible for the development of WHO guidelines on cost-effectiveness analysis. At present, he is coordinator of NICHE - the Nijmegen International Center for Health Systems Research and Education, located at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands. NICHE focuses on international health systems research, more specifically on improving access to health care for poor people, cost and cost-effectiveness analysis of SRH and HIV/AIDS, and multi-criteria priority setting. Rob Baltussen is editor-in-chief of the journal Cost-Effectiveness and Resource Allocation and has published more than 70 international papers in Medline-indexed journals.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Department of Epidemiology
- Researcher in Ireland
Tracey McCauley is a Post Doctoral Researcher on the Clinical Officer Surgical Training in Africa project (COST-Africa). COST-Africa is a collaborative project between the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the Surgical Society in Zambia, the University of Malawi, and Stichting Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen Netherlands. Tracey obtained her doctorate in Exercise Physiology from Loughborough University, UK, as well as an MSc in Physical Activity and Health. Prior to working on COST-Africa Tracey worked in the School of Community Health Sciences, Division of Primary Care, University of Nottingham, UK working on the largest randomised control trial (RCT) in the UK: ProACt65+ the promotion of physical activity in older adults. In her current position, Tracey is involved in this 5 year RCT which will design, implement and evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and impact of a clinical officer surgical training programme at the district hospital level in Malawi and Zambia.
Job Titles:
- Research Manager for the Division of Population Health Sciences
- Research Manager in Ireland
Laura Mechineau-Phelan is the Research Manager for the Division of Population Health Sciences of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (incorporating Epidemiology and Public Health, General Practice and Psychology). Her qualifications include: BSc, MEcon, MSc Fin, MSc (Hons) RCSI-NUI (Ireland) and more recently a LLB (Hons) in Irish Law (UWE Bristol, UK). She authorship two thesis: "Efficience des Marches Financiers" (Paris XII) and "Research Governance: Development and Implementation of Research Data Handling Policies for the Division of Population Health Sciences of the RCSI" (RCSI-NUI). She worked as a researcher for the Banque de France for which she authorship two major reports before joining a trading room as Risk Manager Assistant & Back Office Manager (commodities, currencies markets). She moved to Ireland in 1999 to become Director of an Irish company in charge of National and International operations. Since 2003 she has been involved in pre and post-awards management of over 80 projects: regulatory framework, proposal writing, coordination, reporting, financial and legal management, negotiation with National (HRB, MRCG, IHF, HSE, DoHC, IRC, IRCHSS) and International sponsors (NCI, Welcome Trust, NHS, EC: FP6, FP7, 3HP, H2020). Professional interests: General and legal management of pre (drafting) and post-award, EU frameworks of research, interface law and research and research resolution / negotiaiton of complex issues.Strong track record: Since 2006 over 80 research applications, over 50 medium and large scales awards. Drafting, reviewing and negotiating over 90 legal documents (MoA, MoU, CA, RA, NDA).
Job Titles:
- Consultant Urological Surgeon & Medical Superintendent
Mweene Cheelo obtained a Master of Science degree in epidemiology from the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2013. Before pursing his Master's degree he was national consultant for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) project with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from April 2009 to October 2010. Currently he is Research Officer for the COST-Africa cluster Randomized Control Trial which is designed to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of using medical licentiates specially trained in surgical techniques.