Dr. David Vlahov, PhD, RN, FAAN was recently tapped as a winner of the Hecht Global Health Faculty Network Awards for a collaboration with Dr. Sheela Shenoi, MD, MPH and Dr. Frederick Altice, MD at Yale School of Medicine for their proposal “Reducing Community Spread of TB through transitional care models for recently released inmates in Ukraine.” The award is presented by the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH).
“One of the greatest challenges for control of TB among prisoners is during the transition from corrections to community,” Vlahov said. Knowing the barriers and brainstorming options will be key to providing the best care and population health.”
Dr. Vlahov and Dr. Altice and have previously worked together and share mutual interests in addressing poor health outcomes among incarcerated populations. Dr. Shenoi has also collaborated with Dr. Altice on HIV-related work in Ukraine and has a longstanding interest in tuberculosis. Knowing that Ukraine is among the WHO’s high-burden TB countries, Shenoi was interested in developing new work in Ukraine to address the neglected prison TB epidemic that is increasingly recognized as contributing to the nationwide epidemic.
Vlahov, Shenoi, and Altice are currently preparing the protocol and IRB application, and working with colleagues in Ukraine to lay the groundwork for starting study activities, conscious of COVID-19 restrictions. They plan to collect data from prisoners, clinicians, and administrators to ascertain the barriers to successful TB outcomes, to inform the development of an intervention. The team is also exploring the creation of a stronger network among Yale faculty to address TB-related issues.
The Hecht Award is designed to promote new research, programs, and faculty network collaborations in global health at Yale, and Vlahov’s collaboration is one of three proposals selected for funding this year. Proposals include new faculty collaborations across Nursing, Public Health, Medicine, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Management, representing a range of departments and diverse research expertise.