Armenia-US Collaboration to Address Chronic Disease via Education in Social Determinants Science
(A five year project in partnership with George Washington University)
Funding Agency: US National Institutes of Health, Fogarty International Center
PI: Varduhi Petrosyan, MS, PhD and Co-PIs: Tsovinar Harutyunyan, MPH, PhD and Anya Agopian, MPH, PhD
ACCESS, or Armenia-US Collaboration to Address Chronic Disease via Education in Social Determinants Science, aims to build research capacity in the area of chronic diseases – or non-communicable diseases – and their social determinants. Social determinants of health are the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, discrimination, climate change, and political systems. It aims to:
- Develop a formal NCD prevention and control research training program and institutional infrastructure.
- develop key courses to sustainably enhance AUA graduate-level training to address NCD prevention and control emphasizing SDs of NCD risk factors, using various approaches (e.g., specialized courses).
- offer: a) long-term post-doctoral MPH training for high-caliber candidates with an MD or related doctoral degree in order to develop future NCD research leaders; and b) short-term training for public health and clinical students and professionals to enhance core NCD research skills.
- Advance AM’s national NCD research agenda via mentored research among future NCD research leaders.
- support trainees research, leveraging ongoing AM- and US-based guidance from mentor pairs in AM and the US, and various resources (e.g., research funds, scientific meetings) to enhance their research and dissemination skills, and ultimately advance AM’s evidence-base regarding SDs of NCDs.
- Catalyze NCD-related research dissemination and knowledge translation to inform policy and practice.
- enhance dissemination and translational skills among trainees via didactics and other experiences, including annual Research to Policy Symposiums with AUA and entities under the MOH.