My practicum with iCHORDS began two months ago, on May 11, 2021. I remember staring at the zoom link at 9:55 AM, hoping that my punctuality for the 10 AM meeting would ease my nerves. As I clicked the link for the meeting to begin, I was warmly greeted by the Community of Practice Manager, Leshawn Benedict, “Welcome to your first day at iCHORDS!” I smiled and immediately felt more at ease.
A Community of Practice is a group of people who share a common concern and contribute practices to create new knowledge in the field. iCHORDS was designed to serve as a platform for researchers, program implementers, and NGO partners to collaborate and address programmatic challenges within NTD. Separated into 6 task teams focused on a thematic area within NTDs, individuals can join according to their research interest. Leshawn explained that my main tasks throughout the practicum would be generating content for the website’s launch and assisting in general operational tasks for each task team.
In my first week, I participated in one of the task team’s first initiatives, a webinar “Addressing the issue of ‘systematic non-compliance’ in mass drug administration for lymphatic filariasis.” People who are never treated for chemotherapeutic treatment among eligible populations are a major obstacle in eliminating NTDs by mass drug administration. Known as systematic non-compliers, the term places individuals at fault for systematic barriers that prevent them from accessing treatment. The webinar introduced a new term, ‘never treated’, to identify these individuals. The webinar was an overwhelming success with 200 participants from all around the world. I helped manage a breakout room led by Dr. Horace Cox, from the Ministry of Health at Guyana, and Dr. Martha Saboya, a director of NTDs at the Pan American Health Organization, where we and 25 others discussed priority areas within implementation research. It was a great introduction to my practicum at iCHORDS, as I was able to dive into the programmatic challenges of NTD research from the perspectives of various researchers.
As my practicum progressed, I became more familiar with my day-to-day tasks. One of the most significant deliverables was to create an infographic for six research methods within the social and behavioural research realm. Some key implementation questions frequently arise in NTD elimination programs that make social sciences research increasingly relevant. These include issues surrounding the appropriateness of the timing of MDA activities, the coverage-compliance gap, social mobilization, human resource constraints, weak health systems, and many more. A summary of research methods allows early-career investigators and researchers to quickly and easily identify suitable methods for their own projects.
Each task taught me the importance of social and behavioural research in NTDs as a means to generate and record constructive dialogue among local community members. I was even able to get feedback from experts who had conducted the method firsthand. The experience taught me that when time is spent understanding why implementation barriers occur, an optimal approach can be created to promote the uptake of research findings. Ultimately, the process leads to improved healthcare and health improvements that encompass more than only the absence of disease.
Throughout my practicum, I also participated in various task team meetings. Researchers from different areas in the NTD community would bounce ideas off each other, cultivating dynamic and collaborative discussions. My first task team meeting was with the “CDD Strengthening and Support,” where meeting participants tried to identify knowledge assessment tools for CDDs. Each member contributed advice based on their research expertise – ranging from Haiti’s peer-to-peer CDD training system to Ethiopia’s supervisor-based assessments of training. As NTD elimination programs begin to reach the last mile, taking the time to learn about other researcher’s experiences is an imperative process to understand the research-policy practice nexus in public health.
iCHORDS was an incredible experience where I not only gained a footing of social and behavioural research in NTDs, but also learned about back-end operational tasks necessary for spearheading different initiatives.
One of the mandates in iCHORDS is to support young researchers, and I can say with confidence that iCHORDS has done this. I intend to stay in the field of healthcare, where I know the knowledge that I have gained about social and behavioural research will play an integral role in understanding patient treatment and delivering optimal health care.
If you are a student interested in social sciences and NTDs, I strongly recommend joining a task team or conducting a practicum with iCHORDS!
