Modeling the Impact of Recommendations for Primary Care-Based Screening for Latent Tuberculosis Infection in California.

Objective: Targeted testing and treatment of persons with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a critical component of the US tuberculosis (TB) elimination strategy. In January 2016, the California Department of Public Health issued a tool and user guide for TB risk assessment (California tool) and guidance for LTBI testing, and in September 2016, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued recommendations for LTBI testing in primary care settings. We estimated the epidemiologic effect of adherence to both recommendations in California.

Outlook for tuberculosis elimination in California: An individual-based stochastic model.

Rationale: As part of the End TB Strategy, the World Health Organization calls for low-tuberculosis (TB) incidence settings to achieve pre-elimination (<10 cases per million) and elimination (<1 case per million) by 2035 and 2050, respectively. These targets require testing and treatment for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI).

Objectives: To estimate the ability and costs of testing and treatment for LTBI to reach pre-elimination and elimination targets in California.

Health and economic benefits of reducing sugar intake in the USA, including effects via non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a microsimulation model.

Objectives: Excessive consumption of added sugars in the human diet has been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary heart disease (CHD) and other elements of the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies have shown that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a critical pathway to metabolic syndrome. This model assesses the health and economic benefits of interventions aimed at reducing intake of added sugars.

Where teachers are few: documenting available faculty in five Tanzanian medical schools.

Background: Faced with one of the lowest physician-to-population ratios in the world, the Government of Tanzania is urging its medical schools to train more physicians. The annual number of medical students admitted across the country rose from 55 in the 1990s to 1,680 approved places for the 2015/16 academic year. These escalating numbers strain existing faculty.

Modeling solutions to Tanzania's physician workforce challenge.

Background: There is a great need for physicians in Tanzania. In 2012, there were approximately 0.31 physicians per 10,000 individuals nationwide, with a lower ratio in the rural areas, where the majority of the population resides.

Costs, consequences, and cost-effectiveness of strategies for Babesia microti donor screening of the US blood supply.

Background: Babesia microti is regarded as the foremost infectious risk to the US blood supply for which a regulatory-approved screening test is unavailable. More than 160 cases of transfusion-transmitted Babesia microti (TTB) have been reported to date, yet there is little consensus regarding a mitigation strategy.

Study Design And Methods: This study sought to assess the cost-utility of donation screening by mode of testing (immunofluorescence assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA], polymerase chain reaction [PCR], and combinations thereof) as well as extent of geographic inclusion (4-state, 7-state, 20-state, or national screening).

Tracking university graduates in the workforce: information to improve education and health systems in Tanzania.

With a severe shortage of highly trained health professionals, Tanzania must make the best possible use of available human resources and support training institutions to educate more graduates. We highlight the overlooked but significant role of universities in collecting, managing, and using human resources data in Tanzania and in other countries struggling to build their health workforces. Although universities, professional councils, ministries of health, education, and finance, and non-governmental organizations in Tanzania all maintain databases that include details of health professionals' education, registration, and employment, they do not make the information easily accessible to one another.

An institutional research agenda: focusing university expertise in Tanzania on national health priorities.

A well-articulated institutional health research agenda can assist essential contributors and intended beneficiaries to visualize the link between research and community health needs, systems outcomes, and national development. In 2011, Tanzania's Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) published a university-wide research agenda. In developing the agenda, MUHAS leadership drew on research expertise in its five health professional schools and two institutes, its own research relevant documents, national development priorities, and published literature.