The Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) has entered a partnership with the Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry based in Ontario, Canada to help expand research and training services.
The collaboration also involves Makerere University College of Health Sciences and Mbarara University of Sciences and Technology. .
“JCRC will serve as a national coordinating center for the conduct and operation of facilitating international clinical, practicum, and research placements for students registered at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and Western University more broadly, for experiential learning, clinical and research placements. Students undertake various activities in the areas of basic medical sciences, clinical sciences, global and public health, medicine and dentistry,” the Joint Clinical Research Centre Executive Director, Dr. Cissy Kityo said.
According to the JCRC executive director the students are placed in several Ugandan health related institutions including and coordinated by the Joint Clinical Research Centre for field school and practicum placements.
Dr.Kityo noted that the partnership will also provide Ugandan students, faculty, clinicians and researchers opportunities to develop their skills and enhance their training through reciprocal placements hosted at Western University and its affiliated partners in Southwestern Ontario.
“A key objective of this agreement is to establish long-term research collaboration in fields which are compatible with the orientation of each institution, and which are relevant to the industrial, scientific, social and cultural interests and needs of Uganda and Canada, and helping to address some of the most challenging issues in global health,”Dr.Kityo said.
“The JCRC and Schulich Medicine and Dentistry believe that the quality of research and teaching will be strengthened by the establishment of international cooperation links leading to their mutual enrichment in scientific, academic, and cultural areas. There is hope to expand the collaboration to cover other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.”
Established in 1991 to provide a scientific intervention in the HIV/AIDS challenge in Uganda which at the time had the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) Centre in line with its mandate pioneered the use of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa from 1992.
The JCRC also imported generic Antiretroviral drugs and set up a network model to increase access to ART treatment in the country and subsequently became a case study for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)program announcement culminating into the JCRC becoming the first recipient of a seven-year USAID/PEPFAR grant to rapidly expand access to ART in Uganda and train healthcare workers in Uganda and the region to provide ART.