Community Engagement Program
The TB Alliance is committed to engaging communities in the research process, and is working closely with each trial site participating in the REMoxTB clinical trial program on the development of site-level community engagement strategies. To support community involvement, the TB Alliance created a Small Grants Program, which offers funding to each site for activities ranging from the establishment of formal community advisory structures, to workshops and trainings on TB drug research, to public education and awareness campaigns. These initiatives serve as a bridge between trial participants, community members and researchers and help to establish meaningful mechanisms for open discussion and feedback about the trial.
Several REMoxTB clinical trial sites receiving funding for community engagement through the Small Grants Program have established Community Advisory Boards (CABs). Often comprised of community members involved in local leadership, social services or healthcare delivery, CABs provide input on trial implementation and work towards greater community understanding of TB and the research process.
Community engagement strategies vary by location, and the TB Alliance is taking an individualized approach to ensure that each program is best suited for the site and the local community, with careful consideration of cultural norms and expectations for these activities in each region.
> click here to read about CAB activities in support of World TB Day 2009
Constituency Advisory Committee
In January 2007 the TB Alliance established a Constituency Advisory Committee (CAC) to provide input on TB Alliance clinical programs and to advise on how to proactively and appropriately engage various constituencies in dialogue related to TB drug development, clinical programs, and specific trials.
CAC members represent a range of geographic regions and community constituencies including activists and advocates, representatives of people living with TB and TB/HIV co-infection, health service providers, policy makers, researchers, and public health officials. The CAC meets once per year and on an ad hoc and individual basis to review plans and advise the TB Alliance on its constituency engagement strategies and initiatives.
The ultimate objective of establishing the CAC is to engage and empower communities by creating a participatory environment that addresses a range of perspectives including those of patients, families and local NGOs.
Memoranda of Understanding
The TB Alliance is actively engaging endemic countries with pharmaceutical and biotech capabilities to participate in TB drug development at every stage. To this end, the TB Alliance has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with: the Ministry of Health in Peru; the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil; the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India; the Medical Research Council of South Africa; and the Department of Health, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis, in the Philippines.
These memoranda formalize dialogue channels between the TB Alliance and endemic countries. They also convey responsibility for full participation in the drug development process — from scientific collaboration in the discovery phase, to support of clinical trial infrastructure, to a commitment to roll-out products as they become available.
Retooling Taskforce
Over the next ten to fifteen years, significant advances are expected in TB drug, diagnostic and vaccine development. These new technologies will alter the landscape of a field that has seen little innovation in over three decades. Many of these new technologies will owe their existence to public-private product development partnerships like the TB Alliance. In anticipation of the introduction of new tools to fight TB, the TB Alliance is working to ensure that global healthcare systems are prepared to use new technologies.
As part of these efforts, The Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board established a Task Force on Retooling. The task force membership includes experts designated by the Chairs of the working groups; members of key working group subgroups (e.g., laboratory), representatives of national TB programs in high-burden countries; and representatives from Stop TB and other WHO departments.
The task force aims to facilitate timely and appropriate introduction, adoption, and implementation of new tools as they become available. The main activities of the task force are to:
- Consolidate and share information from the drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines working groups on products in the pipeline;
- Create opportunities for stakeholder dialogue;
- Facilitate the mobilization of financial and human resources at country level;
- Consolidate relevant lessons learned from other disease areas;
- Facilitate operational research on the introduction of new tools;
- Generate evidence to support the adoption of new tools;
- Fast-track the incorporation of new tools into global and national policies and guidelines;
- Enhance communication among all Stop TB working groups about retooling.
One of the first undertakings of the Retooling Task Force was to develop a framework for the adoption, introduction, and implementation of new TB tools, called New Technologies for TB Control: A Framework for their Adoption, Introduction, and Implementation.
The Retooling Taskforce has developed a road map for the adoption and timely introduction of new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for TB, as they become available.
The Taskforce will also generate regional and global implementation strategies for new technologies. Through this effort, the Taskforce will discuss a range of topics including, but not limited to, policy change; regulatory and standard setting issues; supply, distribution and training; and the role of the Global Drug Facility (GDF) and other players.
Click here to visit the web site for the Stop TB Partnership's Task Force on Retooling.
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