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news.The University of Queensland has been granted $24.7 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to further understanding of public health by developing technologies that will give governments new methods of measuring a nation's health.
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The money forms part of the ‘Grand Challenges in Global Health’ initiative and is aimed at helping those in the developing world.
The research grant is a share of a $525 million worldwide scheme, which seeks to identify critical scientific challenges in global health and fund increased research on diseases that cause millions of deaths in the developing world.
The Population Health Metrics Research Consortium Project at the University will develop technologies aimed at giving nations throughout the world improved strategies for population health measurement which will lead to a better understanding of where to direct their public health resources.
Professor Alan Lopez who is heading up the project said the current lack of simple tools for measuring health has led to major gaps in understanding the prevalence and incidence of diseases such as malaria or HIV. He believes it is this lack of knowledge that makes it difficult to allocate resources or implement treatment, prevention and monitoring programs.
The result of this research will be a vastly better understanding of health, at a very low cost, Professor Lopez head of the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health said. This creative and groundbreaking approach uses expertise in epidemiology, biomedical research, and population health assessment to provide a set of vital tools for governments and communities.
The five-year project will involve field sites in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Tanzania.