July 01, 2020

Ki Community Update: Vol. 3, Issue 1 – July 2020

We are pleased to relaunch the Ki Community Update newsletter to keep you informed on what is happening at Ki. Since our last edition of the newsletter, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a threat to global health. Using data to promote global health is even more important now than ever.

If you have ideas for a COVID treatment or study and are seeking funding, visit the COVID Therapeutics Accelerator (CTA) website. CTA is accepting applications for clinical or preclinical stage studies for prophylaxis or early disease treatment of COVID-19 focused on:

  • Diagnostics
  • Small molecule drugs (including antivirals and non-antivirals)
  • Monoclonal antibodies or other biologics (host-directed and antiviral biologics)

CTA is prioritizing proposals for therapeutics and diagnostics that will have global access through prompt launch and affordability in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), with a focus on vulnerable populations. If you have ideas for other COVID-related projects, please contact your program officer.

Ki recently hosted a webinar with Eric Lenze, M.D. on the challenges and solutions for fully remote clinical trials during COVID-19. You can find a full recording of the session here: https://kiglobalhealth.org/video-action-at-a-distance/

Finally, if you have specific questions about the Foundation’s COVID-19 work, please contact your program officer, and if you have specific questions about working with Ki to execute projects, contact [email protected].

KI LAUNCHES INSITE STORIES TO SHARE DATA SCIENCE RALLY RESULTS WITH CONTRIBUTORS

We are excited to introduce Ki Insight Stories, a new way for us to keep you informed on the important insights that Ki and our BMGF partners are generating. Insight Stories also provide an opportunity to thank you for your generous data contributions.

The first Insight Story presents the results of the Stunting and Wasting data science rallies. The dataset for the stunting rally represented almost 90,000 children from more than 30 countries, and for the wasting rally, almost 125,000 children from 35 countries. These extensive longitudinal datasets made it possible to learn new information about the timing and rate of stunting and wasting onset in early life.

The goal of these rallies was to better understand the underlying epidemiology of stunting and wasting, primary risk factors, and the effect modifiers of existing interventions. The results of these studies emphasize the importance of prenatal nutrition and vulnerabilities in the first six months of life and will help inform future intervention strategies.

We deeply appreciate the hard work and involvement of all our data contributors, domain experts, and partners. Without you, this work would not be possible. We would particularly like to acknowledge the data contributors to the Ki Child Growth Consortium, members of the UC Berkeley team, and other collaborators:

Tahmeed Ahmed, Bangladesh Dharma S. Manandhar, Nepal Alan E. Hubbard, USA
Asad Ali, Pakistan Karim P. Manji, Tanzania Mark J. van der Laan, USA
France Begín, USA Estomih Mduma, Tanzania Jeremy Coyle, USA
Pascal Obong Bessong, South Africa Venkata Raghava Mohan, India Oleg Sofrygin, USA
Robert E. Black, USA Sophie E. Moore, United Kingdom Wilson Cai, USA
Ladaporn Bodhidatta, Thailand Mzwakhe Emanuel Nyathi, South Africa Wendy Jilek, USA
William Checkley, USA Maribel Paredes Olortegui, Peru Sonali Dayal, USA
Jean E. Crabtree, United Kingdom William A. Petri, USA Anna Nguyen, USA
Rina Das, Bangladesh Prasanna Samuel Premkumar, India Nolan N. Pokpongkiat, USA
Subhasish Das, Bangladesh Andrew M. Prentice, United Kingdom Stephanie Djajadi, USA
Christopher P. Duggan, USA Najeeb Rahman, Pakistan Anmol Seth, USA
Abu Syed Golam Faruque, Bangladesh Kamran Sadiq, Pakistan Esther O. Chung, USA
Wafaie W. Fawzi, USA Rajiv Sarkar, India Ivana Malenica, USA
José Quirino da Silva Filho, Brazil Naomi M. Saville, United Kingdom Nima Hejazi, USA
Robert H. Gilman, USA Bhim P. Shrestha, Nepal Haodong Li, USA
Richard Guerrant, USA Sanjaya Kumar Shrestha, Brazil Ryan Hafen, USA
Rashidul Haque, Bangladesh Bakary Sonko, United Kingdom Vishak Subramoney, Canada
Eric R. Houpt, USA Erling Svensen, Norway Manoj Mishra, India
Najeeha Talat Iqbal, Pakistan Sana Syed, USA and Pakistan Mohini Khanwelkar, India
Jacob John, India Fayaz Umrani, Pakistan Sudeer Nookala, India
Sushil Matthew John, India Honorine D. Ward, USA Jonas Häggström, Sweden
Gagandeep Kang, India Pablo Penataro Yori, USA Parul Christian, USA
Margaret Kosek, USA Andrew Mertens, USA Kenneth H. Brown, USA
Aldo Ângelo Moreira Lima, Brazil Jade Benjamin-Chung, USA Benjamin F. Arnold, USA
Tjale Cloupas Mahopo, South Africa John M. Colford Jr, USA

If you are a Ki data contributor or partner, we invite you to download the full Insight story by joining the Ki Insight Stories space on Synapse, a collaborative research platform.

TO DOWNLOAD KI INSIGHT STORIES ON SYNAPSE

  1. Log in or register for a Synpase account: https://www.synapse.org
  2. Access the Ki Insight Stories folder, located within the KiData_PlatformServices folder: https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn21237104Please note that if you are a first-time user of Synapse you will be asked to register and complete a quick certification quiz before your access is complete. This is because Synapse can contain sensitive information, so certification is required.

KI GRAND CHALLENEGES EXPLORATIONS BRAZIL: NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The 2018 Ki Grand Challenges Explorations call for proposals in Brazil initiated data-driven projects fostering collaborations between Brazilian researchers, healthcare experts, and data scientists to answer questions focused on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). Based on the success of the first round of projects, a new call for proposals is launching in collaboration with the Brazilian Ministry of Health and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) as well as other data partners. Investigators could partner with CIDACS and DATASUS to access a rich and large pool of regional or national administrative and research data to answer questions related to:

  • Child health
  • Women’s health
  • Nutrition
  • Other cross-sectional topics, such as the impact of economic cycles on primary care quality and evaluating populational and epidemiological trends, to support the planning of programmatic activities and the identification of opportunities for intervention;

Other data partnerships are also being explored.

Given the current world wide outbreak of COVID-19, proposals that consider the impacts of COVID-19 on MNCH topics will be considered, such as: the impact of the pandemic on access to prenatal and postnatal care, gestational health, delivery rates, preterm birth, nutrition and other factors that may impact pregnancy and child development outcomes

The call for applications will be publicly open by the end of June 2020. A Synapse community space is currently in development to allow applicants to connect with other community members, look for potential collaborators and ask questions.

UPDATE ON DATA SETS

Thanks to you, Ki’s repository is ever-expanding. Please find below a list of studies that have completed QC after the last announcement.

  • ePOCT – Tanzania
    This is a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial investigating a new electronic point-of-care tool (e-POCT) for the management of acute febrile episodes among children 2-59 months of age.
  • ITIP-1 – Malawi
    Pneumonia in Malawian Children Aged 2 to 59 Months: A Double-blind, Randomized Clinical Noninferiority Trial.
  • Malawi-Egg – Malawi
    Study of the effect of egg consumption on growth, development and gut health of infants in Malawi.
  • INPer-DMO – Mexico
    Effects of breastfeeding on weight loss and recovery of pregestational weight in adolescent and adult mothers in Mexico.
  • INPer-FICA – Mexico
    Serum Concentration of Leptin in Pregnant Adolescents Correlated with Gestational Weight Gain, Postpartum Weight Retention and Newborn Weight/Length.
  • INPer-REDES – Mexico
    Characteristics of the Family Support Network of Pregnant Adolescents and Its Association with Gestational Weight Gain and Birth Weight of Newborns
  • USM-PregCohort – Malaysia
    The Universiti Sains Malaysia Pregnancy Cohort Study: Maternal-infant Adiposity Development until the First Year of Life
  • INPer-Poli – Mexico
    Poli: Polimorfismos (Polimorfisms)
  •  INPer-CAR – Mexico
    CAR: Conductas Alimentarias de Riesgo (Risk Eating Behaviors)
  •  VITALPAK-Pregnancy – Pakistan
  •  EEDBIP2-AKU – Pakistan
  •  EEDBIP2-CCHCM – USA
  •  EEDBIP2-UVA – USA
  •  EEDBIP2-ICDDRB – Bangladesh
  •  EEDBIP2-ZMB – Zambia

If you would like to learn more about these datasets or any other datasets in the repository, use our study explorer tool. The study explorer tool allows you to see all the data in the repository, at a metadata level, including the data you contributed. Here is the link: http://www.studyexplorer.io/

RESOURCES