The KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) hosted its third Interactive Biostatistics Course in Durban, South Africa.

 

39 scientists participated in the course at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) which was opened up to scientists from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana and Cameroon.  Travel scholarships for these students was provided thanks to the generosity of the Gates Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Ragon Institute of , MIT and Harvard, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Victor Daitz Information Gateway, and the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).

 

13 Masters students, 2 Post-Doctoral researchers and 6 clinicians from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) attended the course, which was well received by both students and established scientists alike.

 

“We now understand not only the formulas, but also why the formulas are used…and an insight into which formula to apply” said Aslam Noorbhai, MBChB, Department of Surgery, UKZN.

 

Lori Chibnik, PhD, MPH, a Biostatistician at Harvard University, facilitates the course where students work with data from their own projects to understand basic statistical concepts and methods used in medical research.

 

K-RITH believes that effective and interactive biostatistics courses will help to address the lack of training in biostatistics and a lack of expert support from experienced biostatisticians, as identified by African scientists at the Sub-Saharan Africa Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) Conference in 2011.

 

Two more K-RITH Interactive Biostatistics Courses are currently in the pipeline (November 2014 and May 2015) and we aim to host an Advanced Biostatistics Course in August 2015.

 

More images taken during the course are available on the K-RITH website.