Episode 4

S2E4 - Community-based clinical trials for malaria elimination

On today’s episode we are joined by Joan Muela from PASS-Suisse/Rovira i Virgili University and Yoriko Masunaga from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp/University of Amsterdam who share their experiences of engaging with communities to improve malaria trial implementation. Have a listen to learn about: 

  • The Community Lab of Ideas for Health (CLIH), a participatory approach for developing community-based solutions to trial implementation strategy challenges 
  • How ethnographic research forms an important entry point of interaction between communities and research teams 
  • Working with communities in the Gambia and the how the long-standing influence of the MRC Unit The Gambia impacts research dynamics

Joan Muela Ribera, PhD and MSc

Lecturer and senior researcher, PASS-Suisse and MARC at Rovira i Virgili University

My field of research is medical anthropology applied to Global Health projects. I did fieldwork in a variety of African, Asian and American countries, mostly in the field of infectious diseases. My area of expertise is participatory implementation research and systemic evaluation. I strongly believe that people in the communities where we work are the ultimate actors and decision-makers. Our role as Social Science experts is to provide useful and solid information for decision-making, as well as a frame and a systematic approach to co-create and co-implement the project.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joan-Muela-Ribera 

https://www.antropologia.urv.cat/en/about/people/adjunct-faculty/ 

Yoriko Masunaga, MPH

Pre-doc, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp / University of Amsterdam

I am a PhD candidate (in medical anthropology) focusing on community participatory implementation research in malaria elimination interventions. With years of working experience in both research and implementation, I am convinced that communities play pivotal role in integrating research and implementation and in tackling global health issues in holistic and transdisciplinary manner, as a co-designer and co-implementer of research and implementation. 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yoriko-Masunaga 

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Connecting Citizens to Science
Researchers and scientists join with communities and people to address global challenges

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About your host

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Kim Ozano

Research and Development Director at SCL and co-founder and host of the ‘Connecting Citizens to Science’ (CCS) podcast. Kim is a health policy and systems researcher with over 15 years’ experience of designing, delivering and evaluating health and development projects in the Global South and UK. She is an implementation health research specialist, as can be seen from her publications and work at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where she remains an Honorary lecturer.
Kim creates space in Connecting Citizens to Science for researchers and communities to share their experience of co-production to shape policy and lasting positive change.