The Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group (CIDG), as part of the Effective Health Care Research Consortium, welcomes two new staff members to the CIDG editorial base: Harriet Blundell (Clinical Research Associate, joined October 2017) and Paul Hine (Research Assistant, joined December 2017).
Harriet is a medical doctor with an interest in tropical medicine and international public health. She is currently developing clinical guidance for the management of common medical conditions affecting refugees living in temporary settlements in a collaborative project with the World Health Organization (WHO). She recently completed her masters’ degree in tropical and infectious diseases (MTID) at LSTM. She also has an interest in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), her thesis involved using an open-access geographic information system to characterise areas of co-endemic onchocerciasis and loa loa in Central Africa. She has spent time volunteering in Egypt, Nepal, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Paul is a medical doctor. He studied BSc International Health, MRes Public Health, and DTM&H. He joined the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group in December 2017, and continues to work part-time as a Registrar in Infectious Diseases at Liverpool Royal. He is working on systematic reviews in HIV and malaria, and on guideline development. He is also looking forward to teaching on the DTM&H and Masters courses.
The CIDG editorial base is located at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, UK. The CIDG is led by Professor Paul Garner (Co-ordinating Editor) and Deirdre Walshe (Managing Editor). Over 600 authors from some 52 countries contribute to the preparation of the Cochrane Reviews. They are supported by an international team of Editors, each with topic or methodological expertise. The CIDG’s main areas of work are on determination of the effects of interventions on the prevention or treatment infectious diseases of relevance to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and neglected tropical diseases. The aims of the CIDG are to impact on policy and research in tropical diseases through the production of high quality and relevant systematic reviews, and to lead developments in review quality improvement and effective dissemination of findings.