Videos

Dr. Gene Civillico, program manager for the NIH Common Fund’s Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program, presents the concept clearance for stage two of the SPARC program at the January 29, 2021 virtual Council of Councils meeting.

Maternal and child health outcomes in Africa still lag behind the rest of the world despite prioritization as a topic of focus within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Partners from country-level governments, research institutions, private sector program funding agencies and non-governmental organizations are involved in various capacities and across disciplines, implementing activities to reduce the enormous burden of high mortality and morbidity of women and children on the African continent. Nonetheless, millions of women and children experience death and severe morbidity each year despite these efforts. In this session we will 1) address the gap in availability of existing databases and collective data focused on pregnancy and the peripartum period; 2) explore emerging use of linked data such as electronic medical records as a tool for conducting research, analyzing data and creating tools for interventions; and 3) develop concrete recommendations for a strategy to utilize data science to improve maternal and child health outcomes from pre-pregnancy to pregnancy and delivery and throughout the mother and child’s life course.

Introductions:
- Vesna Kutlesic, Ph.D., Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Naveen Rao, M.D., Senior Vice President & Senior Advisor to the President, Health Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation
- Diana Bianchi, M.D., Director, NICHD, NIH

Moderators:
- Denise Russo, Ph.D., NICHD, NIH
- Marion koso-Thomas, M.D., MPH, NICHD, NIH

Panelists:
- Andre van der Kouwe, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Physics, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Lilla Zöllei, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
- Moses Alobo, M.D., Program Manager, Grand Challenges Africa Programme at African Academy of Sciences
- Alash’le Abimiku, Ph.D., Professor in Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria
- Amel Ghouila, Ph.D., Vice President, African Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB); Founder, Technovation Tunisia

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

This session highlights the emerging field of health metrics sciences and its role in measuring and monitoring summary measures of health in Africa to better develop and implement measures to reduce the burden of disease. Identify challenges and opportunities relevant to the DS-I Africa initiatives. Address the increasing role that health metrics is playing in informing and prioritizing systems-level health interventions and broad public health-related decision making. Discuss how health metrics and data science can inform and evaluate more effective integrated care efforts at the intersection of infectious diseases and the rapidly growing burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases.

Moderator:
- George A. Mensah, MD, FACC, Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH
- Makeda Williams, PhD, MPH, Global Health Program Director, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, NHLBI, NIH

Panelists:
- Mayowa Owolabi, MBBS, MSc, DrM, Professor of Neurology and Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine; Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan
- Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, and Institute for Health Metrics, University of Washington
- Ana H Mocumbi, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Researcher and Head, Chronic & Non-Communicable Diseases Division, Ministry of Health, National Health Institute & Eduardo Mondlane University
- Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health, University of Washington

The SPARC Plug vlog’s SPARC Portal Tutorials video series introduces you to the SPARC Portal resources available for advancing bioelectronic medicine through open science. In our first video, take a tour of the SPARC Portal website and learn about the information and tools available to help accelerate development of therapeutic devices that modulate electrical activity in nerves to improve organ function. These resources could potentially be used to help improve treatment of diseases and conditions such as hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, type II diabetes, and more.

The SPARC program is a trans-NIH effort managed by the NIH Common Fund in the Office of the Director and supported by NIBIB, NINDS, NIDDK, and NCATS. Learn more about the NIH SPARC program at https://go.usa.gov/xyFmQ and by following SPARC on Twitter @sparc_science, #NIH_SPARC, and #SPARCportal.

This webinar discusses the COVID-19 situation in Africa and presents application examples of Data Science for disease management. A panel of experts touches on topics such as disease surveillance, generating dashboards with the latest statistics, and mining of text or social media to discover trends. Other topics include data-interoperability, publication tracking, disease burden and mortality, and the effect of COVID-19 on diseases like HIV and malaria.

Moderators:
- Stefan Jaeger, Ph.D., National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
- Cecile Viboud, Ph.D., Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health

Panelists:
- Agnes Kiragga, Ph.D., Head of Statistics and Data Management Unit and Senior Research Scientist, Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences
- Nirmal Ravi, MD, Ph.D., Director for Medical and Scientific Affairs, E-Health Africa, and Chief Innovation Officer, EHA Clinics
- Ali H. Mokdad, Ph.D., Professor of Health Metrics Sciences, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Chief Strategy Officer, Population Health at the University of Washington
- Elaine Nsoesie, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health
- Frank Kagoro, M.D., MSc, Research Physician, MORU Tropical Health Network and WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town

As part of the DS-I Africa Symposium, this session addressed emerging opportunities and challenges in the application of Data Science and Informatics technologies in various biomedical domains. It also highlighted some key challenges in the areas of data mining, data quality, standards for various types of data, in addition to addressing how cutting-edge data analytics, predictive modeling and Machine Learning, and methods for simulations can advance human health in Africa.

Moderator:

Darrell Hurt, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Geetha Senthil, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH 
Panelists:

Abdoulaye Banire Diallo, University of Quebec-Montreal (UQAM) 
Elaine Nsoesie, Boston University 
Geoffrey Siwo, University of Notre Dame 
Dina Machuve, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology 
Moustapha Cisse, Google AI

Environmental Health challenges in Africa are complex, involving a broad range of exposures, including ambient and indoor air pollution, electronic waste, heavy metals, pesticides, vector-borne pathogens, and climate change, and a large proportion of the disease burden in Africa is linked to environmental factors. As part of the DS-I Africa State of Data Science series, this session explored unique aspects and analytic challenges of the various types of environmental health data and will highlight recent data science approaches to characterizing hazardous exposures on the African continent, connecting environmental exposures to health outcomes, and reducing the risk of disease connected to the environment.

Moderator:
Gwen Collman, Acting Deputy Director, Associate Director for Extramural Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Panelists:

Kiros Berhane, Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Caradee Wright, Senior Specialist Scientist, Environment and Health Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council
Engineer Bainomugisha, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science, School of Computing & IT, Makerere University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

As part of the DS-I Africa State of Data Science series, this session focused on opportunities and challenges at the intersection of biomedical imaging (including microscopy, diagnostic and interventional radiology, and digital pathology) and data science. The session both considered new and emerging imaging modalities as well as computer-aided diagnosis and treatment planning tools and emerging AI/machine learning approaches to image analysis.

Hear advice from researchers who have served as reviewers on peer review panels.

Presenter: Venkat Narayan, Professor, Emory University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Learn about the role of grant management specialist at NIH and hear advice regarding the policy and budget aspects of NIH applications.

Presenter:
Satabdi Raychowdhury, Grant Management Officer, Fogarty International Center, NIH Mollie Shea, Grant Management Officer, Fogarty International Center, NIH

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Watch a live demo of the electronic application process through the Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST) system.

Presenter: Laurie Roman, Customer Service Manager for eSubmissions, ASSIST & CRIMS electronic Research Administration, Office of Extramural Research, NIH.

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

Hear advice from researchers who have successfully applied for and received NIH funding.

Presenter:
Rajesh Vedanthan, Associate Professor, New York University Langone Shivani Patel, Assistant Professor, Emory University

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

In coordination with the launch of the DS-I Africa program, NIH is hosting a Virtual Symposium Platform, which offers a series of interactive panel discussions featuring information on the funding opportunity announcements, cross-cutting topics of importance to the initiative, and relevant scientific issues. In this session, attendees participated in an interactive session focusing on training data science leaders in Africa, including the challenges, opportunities, and impact of training efforts.

Moderator:
Martin Were, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University; Founding Director, Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Moi University, Kenya

Panelists:
- Mahadia Tunga, Co-founder and Director of Capacity Development, Tanzania dLab
- Ignace Kabano, Head of Training, African Center of Excellence in Data Science, University of Rwanda
- Amel Ghoulia, Scientific Community Coordinator, Exaptive for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Jeremie Zoueu, National Polytechnic Institute, Côte d’Ivoire; African Spectral Imaging Network (AFSIN)

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

In coordination with the launch of the DS-I Africa program, NIH is hosting a Virtual Symposium Platform, which offers a series of interactive panel discussions featuring information on the funding opportunity announcements, cross-cutting topics of importance to the initiative, and relevant scientific issues. In this session, attendees participated in an interactive session focusing on biomedical data ecosystems, frameworks, best practices and lessons learned to establish the next-generation platform infrastructure to make data more discoverable and accessible, and foster a collaborative research community.

Moderator:
Katherine Lawrence, Research Area Specialist Lead and Research Investigator, University of Michigan

Panelists:
- Nicola Mulder, Professor and head of the Computational Biology, University of Cape Town; PI of H3ABioNet
- Benedict Paten, Associate Professor, Biomolecular Engineering, UCSC
- Geoffrey Siwo, Research Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame
- Russ Taylor, Professor of Astronomy, University of Cape Town
- Susan Veldsman, Director, Scholarly Publishing Unit, Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...

The SPARC Plug vlog’s Tools & Tech video series features SPARC-funded research tools and technologies. In our fifth video, learn how researchers can bounce light waves off of nerves to build 2-D and 3-D images of nerve structures! These tools and techniques could potentially be used in the future to manipulate peripheral nerves and their electrical signals to help improve treatment of diseases and conditions such as hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, type II diabetes, and more. Learn more about SPARC-funded research projects at https://go.usa.gov/xyFmD

The SPARC program is a trans-NIH effort managed by the NIH Common Fund in the Office of the Director and supported by NIBIB, NINDS, NIDDK, and NCATS. Learn more about the NIH SPARC program at https://go.usa.gov/xyFmQ

In coordination with the launch of the DS-I Africa program, NIH is hosting a Virtual Symposium Platform, which offers a series of interactive panel discussions featuring information on the funding opportunity announcements, cross-cutting topics of importance to the initiative, and relevant scientific issues. In this session, attendees participated in an interactive session focusing on harnessing innovation and entrepreneurship in Data Science for health research in Africa.

Moderator:
Roger Glass, Director, Fogarty International Center, NIH

Panelists:
- Gregory Gamula, Dean of Engineering, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic
- Andrea (Andi) Gobin, Director of Invention Education & Lecturer, Rice 360 Institute for Global Health, Rice University
- Robert Karanja, CEO, Villgro Kenya
- Fadhili Chacha Marwa, CEO, Enzi Health
- Theresa Mkandawire, Associate Professor, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic
- Elioda Tumwesigye, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Government of Uganda

Learn more about the program and any current funding opportunities: https://commonfund.nih.gov/AfricaData

Learn more about the DS-I Africa Virtual Symposium Platform: https://commonfund.nih.gov/africadata...