News archive: 2016

COMDIS-HSD attracts global audience for our antibiotic findings in Vancouver

‘We need to be cautious not to romanticise communities as resilient, when what they are doing is coping in difficult situations. ‘Health systems resilience needs to be qualified by an explicit focus on equity and social justice, and support the … Read on »

Real people, real stories: how digital storytelling is supporting NCD work in Swaziland

Our partners at Good Shepherd Hospital in Swaziland are using digital storytelling to improve awareness and education about non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Working closely with the newly-formed Swaziland NCD Stakeholders Alliance, COMDIS-HSD is supporting a project to develop digital storytelling as … Read on »

Our tribute to Sylvia Meek: inspiration, powerhouse and dear friend

We were very saddened at COMDIS-HSD to hear about the death of our dear friend and colleague Sylvia Meek, Malaria Consortium’s Global Technical Director. She had an enormous presence within our consortium and her loss has been felt greatly among us. For over … Read on »

Text message pilot boosts antimalarial uptake among pregnant women in Uganda

Daily text messages reminding health workers to encourage pregnant women to take their antimalarial drugs are helping to significantly improve uptake of the treatment in Uganda. The text message pilot is part of a wider project being led by COMDIS-HSD … Read on »

World TB Day 2016: What we’re doing at COMDIS-HSD to End TB

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on countries to ‘Unite to End TB’. Ending TB by 2030 is a target of the Sustainable Development Goals and a programme priority for COMDIS-HSD and our partners. More than 4,000 … Read on »

Dr Rumana Huque talks about the challenges of providing free TB treatment for factory workers

On 24th March, it will be World TB Day. Under the National TB Programme (NTP), we can all make use of free TB diagnosis and treatment. But uptake to this free service is surprisingly slow. Why is this? My personal view is … Read on »

Small, focused, well designed qualitative studies are critically important to our learning

The recent Open Letter to the BMJ editors highlighted a concern held by many qualitative researchers. At COMDIS-HSD, we welcome the open letter to the BMJ editors and agree that there are a number of leading journals that give low … Read on »

5 take-away messages from 'Using Research Evidence: A Practical Guide'

Dr Nilam Ashra-McGrath, Research Uptake Manager for COMDIS-HSD shares her 5 ‘take-away’ messages from the recently published Using Research Evidence: A Practical Guide:  Although this guide, published by the Alliance of Useful Evidence and NESTA, is aimed at those working to change UK policy, much of it is … Read on »

Bold media plan and strong lifestyle messages take ARK’s NCD work to the nation

A bold media strategy targeting top TV and print journalists has allowed our ARK Foundation partners to reach millions with their message about better prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Bangladesh. Strong lifestyle messages about unhealthy food habits, … Read on »

What did we achieve in 2015? See our year in pictures

HERD won a WHO ‘No Tobacco’ award; we took the stage at world conferences on lung and urban health; we ran our first journal paper writing workshop; and ARK made the news on national TV channels across Bangladesh for their … Read on »