DRILL fellowship awarded to CAPRISA research clinician
Dr Sherika Hanley (left), CAPRISA research clinician at the Um-lazi Research Clinic, has been awarded a DRILL Fellowship, a four-year research training scholarship, by UKZN. The Develop-ing Research Innovation, Localisation and Leadership in South Africa (DRILL) grant is funded by the National Institutes of Health in the US, aims at developing world-class sci-entists who are able to lead high-impact research to find solutions to problems afflict-ing communities in resource-constrained settings in South Africa.
Dr Hanley, a specialist family physician who recently registered for her PhD entitled “Integration of Cardiovascular Disease Screening and Prevention in the HIV Man-agement Plan for Women of Reproductive Age”, will undertake training and research in the field of HIV under the supervision of Prof Daya Moodley, Head of the Women’s Health and HIV Research Unit at UKZN and Dr Mergan Naidoo Head of Clinical Unit School of Nursing and Public Health, UKZN.The study proposes an algorithm which includes point of care predictors of, and interventions for, cardiovascular disease risk, integrated into the HIV management guidelines for women receiving HIV care in resource-constrained settings.
Dr Hanley said that if the study is proven to be feasible and effective, “study findings could potentially offer a platform for further research which may allow for possible policy amendment in the direction of a simple to administer, but comprehensive integrated HIV chronic care model to be implemented at all levels of Primary Health Care in South Africa.”