Anthony D Harries, Pruthu Thekkur, Irene Mbithi, Jeremiah Muhwa Chakaya, Hannock Tweya, Kudakwashe C Takarinda, Ajay M V Kumar, Srinath Satyanarayana, Selma Dar Berger, I D Rusen, Mohammed Khogali, Rony Zachariah
Real-time operational research can be defined as research on strategies or interventions to assess if they are feasible, working as planned, scalable and effective. The research involves primary data collection, periodic analysis during the conduct of the study and dissemination of the findings to policy makers for timely action. This paper aims to illustrate the use of real-time operational research and discuss how to make it happen. Four case studies are presented from the field of tuberculosis. These include (i) mis-registration of recurrent tuberculosis in Malawi; (ii) HIV testing and adjunctive cotrimoxazole to reduce mortality in TB patients in Malawi; (iii) screening TB patients for diabetes mellitus in India; and (iv) mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on TB case detection in capital cities in Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe...
June 8, 2021: Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease