London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

This informal lunchtime meeting will include a short quiz (with prize!) to test people’s knowledge of Tanzania, two short talks on current work in Tanzania, and an opportunity to find out more about the Tanzania Network.  While the focus will be on Tanzania, the talks will be of general interest to all staff and students, and all are welcome to attend.

Details of the two talks are below:

“Developing and implementing point-of-contact interactive record linkage (PIRL) to measure patterns of HIV service utilization in Tanzania” - Christopher Rentsch

Abstract

For his PhD research, Christopher has developed point-of-contact interactive record linkage (PIRL) and adapted computer software to prospectively link demographic and serological surveillance data with medical records from three clinics in a rural region of Tanzania located within a surveillance area offering HIV services.  Using the linked dataset, he has (i) identified patient characteristics associated with successful linkage and compared PIRL with a traditional, automated probabilistic record linkage approach, (ii) quantified errors associated with linkage and estimated bias in analyses that rely on imperfectly matched datasets, and (iii) investigated delays from HIV diagnosis to care by testing modality.

Bio

Christopher is currently a PhD student in the Department of Population Health at LSHTM.  In parallel to his PhD described above, he performs clinical pharmacoepidemiological research using data from the Veterans Health Administration in the US.

“Evaluating the PharmAccess SafeCare model for quality improvement in private health facilities” – Jessica King

Abstract

The private sector is a major and growing source of treatment in Tanzania, but there is considerable concern about the safety and quality of care.  We are conducting a randomised controlled trial of the SafeCare quality improvement programme for private facilities, which involves quality assessments, mentoring, training and access to guaranteed loans.  Quality is being measured through a combination of standardised patients, observation of infection prevention and control practices and patient exit interviews.

Bio

Jessica King is a research fellow in health economics and impact evaluation.  She is a mathematician by training and applies statistical, econometric and epidemiological methods to health systems research.  She currently works on the evaluation of SafeCare in Tanzania and is also a PhD student in the Department of Global Health and Development.