(M-507) Building the next generation of biomedical engineering researchers in HIV/TB Diagnostics in Francophone Countries

Introduction:: In Mali and many parts of Africa, the incidence of mycobacterial infection is high and
driven, in a large part, by the overlapping HIV epidemic. The WHO recent guidelines for the
management of HIV disease recommend a package of care consisting of rapid initiation of
antiretroviral therapy (ART), enhanced screening and diagnosis of tuberculosis. The objective of
this program is to create a new biomedical engineering (BME) department and a new master
program to train and enhance the career development of biomedical engineers and laboratory
investigators to design and develop locally and contextually adapted diagnostic tools for HIV associated
mycobacterial infection. The emphasis in our curriculum is on medical device design for African medical environments.

Materials and Methods:: We leveraged our current collaboration and resources to build a network to address and
enhance our HIV and mycobacterial research capacity at the University of Sciences, Techniques, and
Technologies of Bamako, Mali (USTTB) and the Mali National School of engineering (NSE)
with Northwestern University in Chicago, Johns Hopkins University and Stellenbosch University
(South Africa). We organized several series of short-, medium- and long-term training sessions. Most of the
training has been performed at USTTB in Mali.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: During the past 6 years we have trained 402 medical personnel from different hospitals,
clinics, laboratories, and faculty members in 13 Central and West African countries. A total of 135
(33.6%) short-term training courses, 238 (59.0%) medium-term training courses and 29 (7.0%) long-
term training courses have been performed. We have trained master’s students in the United States 
(2), PhD students (3) and 24 Master's students in Mali. A total of 10 faculty members from the School
of Medicine or the National School of Engineering benefited from the Faculty Enrichment Program in
Chicago at Northwestern University. With this critical mass of training, we have formalized the BME
department creation at National School of Engineering and a new master’s degree in BME.

This program aspires to bring USTTB BME investigators to the next level of
research capacity and to make USTTB as a center of excellence in the research, development of
new diagnostic tools and care of HIV and associated mycobacterial infections in West Africa.

Acknowledgements (Optional): : This work was supported by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of
Health under award number Building the Next Generation of Researchers in TB/HIV
Diagnostics in Mali (B-NextGen) Mali, D43TW010350 and (C-THAN) U54EB02704

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