Past Research Projects

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: India
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, this study developed and implemented the first large-scale cervical cancer screening project in northeast India. Over 30,000 of the targeted 50,000 women, who primarily live in rural villages within a four to five hour drive from Kolkata, have already been screened. Important findings have demonstrated how to improve the effectiveness of screening using combinations of the VIA (visualization) and Hybrid Capture (detecting presence of human papilloma virus DNA) approaches. Anew project involving oral cancer screening (30% of all cancers in India) using the new technology of autofluorescence is now under development.

Arthur Michalek, PhD, FACE, Professor

Location: Nigeria
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

In partnership with a colleague at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Michalek is establishing a cancer clinic in Nigeria for prevention, screening, and treatment.

Arthur Michalek, PhD, FACE, Professor

Location: Middle East and North Africa
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Dr. Michalek developed online modules for cancer screening in the Middle East and built a research and training program in North Africa.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: West Bengal
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with Bandhan and Freedom from Hunger, this project involved developing village based approaches to the identification, referral/treatment, of individuals with chronic illnesses, including the use of mobile technology for communication, data collection and education. A Bandhan clinic, along with a network of trained community health workers and health educators, facilitated the project. 

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with the Makerere University School of Public Health and UB's School of Public Health and Health Professions this project aimed to advance knowledge about the incidence, prevalence and impact of non-communicable diseases/chronic illness as the basis for developing a village-based pilot intervention.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project facilitated collaboration between the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa and the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Jamtara / Jharkhand
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project, in partnership with Reach-India, initially involved a household interview survey about health concerns, and trained ten community health workers. Each of the community health workers in turn worked with 20 women's self-help groups (existing and newly organized). They provided health education, referral, health event motivation, and health product distribution.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project, in collaboration with Educate, involved the development and implementation of a program in over 50 high schools in all the districts of Uganda designed to prevent sexual abuse. Each school has a mentor that now provides a curriculum which builds leadership and entrepreneurship.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Jalpaiguri / Darjeeling
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

The West Bengal Voluntary Health Association is constructing an important training facility in the north of the state of West Bengal to focus on improving the now poor status of health workers in the districts of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. The project focus is to facilitate the training of 3,000 ASHAs (community health workers) along with the involvement of the West Bengal government.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: India and Asia
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project, in partnership with Freedom from Hunger, provided multi-year funding to support efforts at poverty alleviation and the advancement of the integration of microfinance and health in India and Asia.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Health, this project involved developing a pilot using mobile technology that enabled community health workers to more effectively communicate, gather and provide critical data, and to better educate individuals and groups.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Mukono District, Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project, with support from the Mpoma Community, provided support for weekly health education and screening services, throughout parts of the Nama sub-county, for family planning, HIV/AIDS, hypertension and deworming.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Mukono District, Uganda

Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with a rural community and the Johnson Nkosi Memorial HIV/AIDS Orphan Primary School, this project provided a series of public health interventions, including insecticide-treated bed nets, safe water, sanitary latrines and a dispensary.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: India
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

With help from Nidan, an NGO in the city of Patna, this project implemented public health interventions in rural villages. Interventions focused on handwashing and deworming, safe water and sanitation improvement.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Navajo Nation, New Mexico, USA
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

With support from private donors, four apprentices completed the first phase of this project under the supervision of, and with training by, an accomplished Navajo medicine man. The project is in response to the decline in the availability of traditional medicine on the Navajo Nation.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: New Delhi
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with India Foundation this project provided support for the operations of three modest clinics. A new initiative is focused on expanding care to street children in collaboration with organizations who work with these children.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: India
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with an Indian foundation, this project developed and opened a clinic for the homeless in New Delhi. A second one is under development.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In collaboration with an in-country rehabilitation center, Katalemwa Cheshire Home, this study aimed to design and implement a community-based program in remote, rural villages to identify, diagnose, treat and advance opportunities for children with a range of physical disabilities. The program included referral for surgery when appropriate and/or the fitting of needed appliances. Family education and advocacy was also provided.

Additionally, in collaboration with the Center for Disabilities and Rehabilitation, a project has been developed to involve the use of mobile technology to support the education of community based rehabilitation workers and families in the effective care and support of the children.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Kolkata/Asansol, India
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In Kolkata, the Office of Global Health Initiatives is collaborated with the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy and Sangam, an organization working with more than 400 people with disabilities across different villages, on a project that developed a new model for training community-based workers who care for and support disabled children. The project included training of community-based rehabilitation workers for Sangam to significantly expand the number of disabled children served. Currently, partners are developing educational videos for staff and parents on improved care for disabled children that will be available through the use of mobile technology.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In collaboration with ReSound, Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center, and appropriate in-country organizations, Ashley Eisen, AuD, will test and fit a significant number of hearing disabled children with new hearing aids.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: New Mexico, USA
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with the University of New Mexico, Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Navajo Area Agency on Aging, project participants collaborated on the development and implementation of interventions to improve the health of elders on the Navajo Nation.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: India
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

In partnership with an NGO, this project designed and established a program for the care and support of the frail elderly in 45 rural villages.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

With the WHO/Tropical Diseases Research Program and the Uganda Ministry of Health, this study helped design a plan for rollout of a new intervention to treat malaria in children.

Arthur Goshin, MD, MPH

Location: Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

Working with the Child Health and Development Centre at Makerere University, Uganda, this study, led by OGHI founder Arthur Goshin, evaluated interventions for those living in remote, rural villages. The project sought to improve maternal health, and birth weight, health, nutrition and growth in children.

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Department: Office of Global Health Initiatives

This project facilitated collaboration between the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa and the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: Kenya and Nepal
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

To develop robust monitoring and evaluation plans, and to collect the necessary data to evaluate UNICEF-supported handwashing promotion programs in Kenya and Nepal. Hand washing has been shown to reduce diarrhea and pneumonia, the two leading causes of death in young children. The work will fill significant gaps in the understanding of whether or not large-scale hand washing promotion programs succeed in changing the behavior of individuals, and whether this change in behavior is sufficient to improve health in low- and middle-income countries.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: Meru County, Kenya
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

This study tested the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of a program promoting hand washing with soap to pregnant women in Meru County, Kenya. The program utilized antenatal health care providers and community health volunteers to promote the program to women using an interactive, storytelling approach and addressing individual barriers to hand washing at key times to interrupt pathogen transmission to the neonate. The Maternal handwashing study was funded by Save the Children.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: Kisumu, Kenya
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

This study assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a redesigned handwashing system when coupled with a handwashing behavioral intervention in peri-urban primary schools in Kisumu, Kenya. Using a cluster-randomized trial approach that incorporates a stepped wedge design, the study sought to understand usage and maintenance practices related to handwashing stations in primary schools in comparison to existing handwashing practices. The Soapy water handwashing station study was funded by USAID.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

In collaboration with colleagues from CDC, Dr. Ram's team conducted key informant interviews with experts and practitioners in water, sanitation and hygiene in humanitarian emergencies to understand the current state of handwashing promotion efforts. Subsequently, they assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practice of handwashing with soap in an on going humanitarian emergency in South Sudan using more rigorous methods of evaluation. In the near future, they will identify barriers and facilitators of hand hygiene promotion among populations affected by humanitarian emergencies in internally displaced persons camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They will also evaluate effects of interventions employing visual cues, nudges, and emotion-based motivators on the behavior of displaced persons.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: Mirzapur, Bangladesh
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

In a randomized controlled trial, Dr. Ram’s team evaluated the impact of promoting waterless hand cleansing with chlorhexidine on the hand cleansing behavior of mothers and others during the peripartum / neonatal periods.

Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD

Location: Bangladesh & Kenya
Department: Epidemiology and Environmental Health

Dr. Ram’s team provided technical expertise in measurement of handwashing behavior and development of handwashing interventions for this comprehensive study on the benefits of water quality, sanitation, and handwashing interventions for improving child health and development.