Digital tools to understand multiple health problems in African communities
MADIVA (Multimorbidity in Africa: Digital innovation, visualisation and application)
This project uses clinic records, long-term health surveys, and genetics to learn how people in African communities develop and live with multiple health conditions.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Wits Health Consortium (Pty), LTD NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Parktown, South Africa) |
| Project ID | NIH-11395803 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will combine large, long-running health datasets, clinic and lab records, and available genomic information from urban and rural sites in Kenya and South Africa. Teams will use data-science, visualization, and digital methods to link fragmented records and reveal patterns of co-occurring infections, injuries, and chronic diseases over time. Partners including local universities and research centers and industry will build tools to make these patterns easier for clinicians and public-health teams to see and use. The hub aims to turn messy, incomplete data into actionable insights for care and planning.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are residents of the participating sites (notably Nairobi, Kenya and Bushbuckridge, South Africa) and people with two or more chronic or infectious conditions or linked clinic records in those areas.
Not a fit: People living outside the participating communities or those without linked digital health or genomic records are unlikely to get direct benefits from this hub's activities.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help health workers identify people with multiple conditions earlier and tailor care and public-health plans to reduce combined illness burden.
How similar studies have performed: Similar data-linkage and digital-analysis approaches have yielded useful multimorbidity insights elsewhere, but applying them at this scale across African population cohorts is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Parktown, South Africa
- Wits Health Consortium (Pty), LTD — Parktown, South Africa (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hazelhurst, Scott — Wits Health Consortium (Pty), LTD
- Study coordinator: Hazelhurst, Scott
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.