Russian-Norwegian Project "Operational Research" Is Granted Support

In 2009, The Union and Médecins Sans Frontières launched an operational research skills training program. In 2012, they partnered with WHO, which has a profound tropical disease research.

Public health programs in many countries around the world are “data rich, but poor in the amount of information extracted from that data,” which implies that much data is generated at the country level, and the potential for using this data to improve public health is rarely realized fully. The Structured Operations Research and Training (SORT IT) initiative seeks to make countries “data-rich, information-rich and intervention-rich,” thereby contributing to improved health care delivery and outcomes. SORT IT is a global partnership coordinated by the Tropical Diseases Research and Education Special Program and implemented in conjunction with partners. SORT IT supports countries and institutions in: conducting operational research according to their own priorities; building sustainable operational research capacity; and making informed decisions to improve the effectiveness of the program. Participants develop a research project, draw up a protocol, collect and analyze data, write articles and submit them for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Operational research is being conducted on a variety of topics such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, HIV / AIDS, neglected tropical diseases, maternal and child health, epidemics and emergencies, antimicrobial resistance and noncommunicable diseases.

In Arkhangelsk, such a training course was first held in 2017–2018, in which specialists from the tuberculosis service and scientists from Arkhangelsk took part.
The course was organized by the Easy Breathing Charity Fund, Northern State Medical University, LHL International Tuberculosis Foundation within the framework of the Russian-Norwegian project “Stop TB in Northwest Russia in Our Lifetime” (2014-2018).