The Faculty encourages its members to be involved in research at all levels.

Some of the recent research from projects form our staff members include among others.

Title: My Mobile Wallet: An Intervention to Support Access to Tuberculosis Care and Medication Adherence in Rural Uganda.

Acronym: MMWallet

 Principal Investigator: Dr. Angella Musiimenta, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

Co-Investigators:

  1. Jessica Haberer, MD: Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and Director of Research, Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
  2. Sebastian Linnemayr, PhD: Senior Economist, RAND Corporation, USA

Timeline: August 2021- May 2026

 Overview. TB is a serious public health concern which kills more people annually than HIV and malaria combined, and poor treatment adherence limits the success of TB treatment and increases TB transmission. SMS texts and real-time adherence monitoring may provide low-cost and acceptable alternative approaches to supporting TB medication especially in settings where DOT is difficult to implement, while incentives may overcome financial and motivational issues that currently constrain medication adherence. MMWallet is a novel intervention that utilizes SMS texts as reminders for medication adherence and employs mobile money-based approaches to provide transport to the clinic, with the goal of motivating medication adherence.

 We will first determine the optimal design and develop the My Mobile Wallet intervention and assess its initial feasibility and acceptability. We will then test the larger scale feasibility, acceptability, and impact of the intervention on TB treatment adherence as measured with a real-time monitor. We hypothesize that My Mobile Wallet will address behavioral and economic challenges that currently limit TB treatment.

Funding: US National Institute of Health (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health)

(R21HD107985)

Title: Ethics of Using Digital Adherence Monitoring Technologies to Support Tuberculosis Medication Acronym: DATs Ethics Study

 Principal Investigator: Dr. Angella Musiimenta, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

 Co-Investigator: Dr. Schmidt, Harald Thomas, PhD: Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania, USA

 Mentors

  1. Jessica Haberer, MD: Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and Director of Research, Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
  2. Erisa Sabakaki Mwaka, Makerere University

Timeline: July 2021- June 2022

 Overview.  Although digital adherence technologies (DATs) are promising patient-centered strategies for monitoring TB medication adherence, ethical opportunities and concerns associated with using DATs in monitoring TB medication adherence (e.g., autonomy, beneficence) have not been empirically examined. In response to NOT-OD-21-020: Administrative Supplement for Research and Capacity Building Efforts Related to Bioethical Issue), we seek to broaden the scope of our parent DATs study (K43TW010388) by proposing a DATs Ethics study in which we use the consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to qualitatively assess experiences and views of DATs Study participants, TB clinic staff, and relevant health policy makers about experienced and emerging novel DATs. We develop a practical initial framework for implementation of these technologies in Uganda drawing from the identified ethical opportunities and challenges, and develop and implement a curriculum for “Ethics Research through Implementation Science”.

Funding: US National Institute of Health (NIH)/Fogarty International Centre

Funding reference number:

Grant number: K43TW010388-05S1

Using Mobile Technologies to prevent Vulnerable Mothers from COVID-19 in Rural Southwestern Uganda: (MobileMomCare)

 Principal Investigators:

  1. Angella Musiimenta, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
  2. Dr. Niels Pinkwart, Humboldt University, Berlin Germany

Co-Investigators

  1. Mugyenyi Godfrey, Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology
  2. Jane Katusiime, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

 Timeline: April 2021-May 2022

 Overview. The current COVID-19 awareness campaigns and prevention messages used in Uganda may not be easily  accessible and understood by illiterate poor mothers due to lack of television sets where multimedia messages demonstrating COVID-19 prevention strategies (e.g. proper hand washing, coughing) are currently disseminated. Moreover, these messages are disseminated in English language, which illiterate women cannot understand. There is an urgent need to avail reliable preventive information to these otherwise hard-to-reach illiterate and vulnerable mothers. Also, COVID-19 pandemic causes new challenges to the vulnerable rural mothers and their babies—amidst the current lockdowns, and travel restrictions, mothers still need to access postnatal care such as HIV/AIDS prevention. Through a MatHealth study (01DG18004: PI on Uganda side: Musiimenta, MUST; PI on Germany side: Pinkwart, HU) funded by BMBF, our group has demonstrated that a mobile phone-based multimedia application can enable women overcome barriers that limit access to maternal health services.

The MMomCare project supports the prevention of COVID-19 among rural illiterate, poor, and vulnerable mothers in southwestern Uganda, using a mobile phone-based multimedia application—MobileMomCare application – that disseminates videos/audio for COVID-19 prevention (e.g. proper handwashing, social distancing), and information for preventing/coping with COVID-19-induced/aggravated challenges, in particular, domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS. The application also activates clinic appointment reminders, and facilitates electronic consultations. Using a mixed methods approach, we will evaluate the preliminary impact of the MobileMomCare project on COVID-19 prevention knowledge, risk perception, adoption of COVID-19 prevention practices among the participants of our MatHealth project. The effect of the intervention on preventing/coping with COVID-19-induced/ aggravated challenges i.e. domestic violence, and HIV/AIDS will also be assessed.

Funding: Federal German Ministry of Education and Research

Funding reference number:

Grant number: 01DG21014

Comments are closed.

Close Search Window