CAPRISA fellow receives a Lancet-CUGH Best Student poster award
CAPRISA fellow Kate Simeon received a Lancet-CUGH Best Student poster award at the 9th Annual Consortium of Universities in Global Health (CUGH) Conference in New York. Simeon’s poster assessing the “Cost of Point-of-Care Test Monitoring for HIV-Positive Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy” was the overall winner in the Implementation Science Track. Simeon, who is studying Medicine at the University of Washington, undertook a 12-week fellowship placement with CAPRISA’s STREAM point-of-care (POC) Viral Load study, a randomized implementation trial assessing POC monitoring for patients receiving ART. Using micro-costing data and time and motion studies, Simeon found that POC monitoring is potentially cost saving compared to standard laboratory monitoring. A full cost-effectiveness analysis is planned when STREAM finishes in late 2018. The prize was presented by Zoe Mullan, editor of the Lancet Global Health, at the Annual CUGH Awards Ceremony. The CUGH, held from 16-18th March, is the world’s leading academic global health conference, and this year was co-hosted by Columbia and Stellenbosch Universities.