Health Research and Studies

It is an established fact that research is deemed highly valuable. It is a tool that serves to inform public health professionals of the issues that are of importance to the advancement of the public health field. Such issues may include updates on disease trends and risk factors, patterns of healthcare service delivery, outcomes of public health interventions, functional abilities of the health system or selected health service delivery points. Research may also shed light on issues pertaining to health care costs and use, supply and demand as well as side issues in the provision of health services, amongst other matters. More specifically, research findings may serve to influence public health policy at various levels from the local, to the subnational, national and international levels. Hence, it is important for public health practitioners to have knowledge of the basic principles of research as this will make them well-versed in the skills they need to apply research principles to public health practice.

The execution of medical and health research in the region may be seen as deficient when compared to research projects implemented in other regions. This finding may be attributed to the fact that some health professionals do not have the knowledge they need to conduct research. Students may need more practical and applied teaching methods integrated in the curriculum for them to grasp the concepts of research. To address this gap, this program adopts a practical skills-based chronological approach to deal with the challenges facing new and inexperienced authors seeking to publish their research findings.