Caryl Feldacker, PhD, MPH, has over 18 years of international experience focused on ensuring quality public health programming in sub-Saharan Africa, including more than 10 years conducting HIV-related implementation science research. Her current research focuses on employing appropriate digital health solutions in low-resource settings to increase the quality of HIV-related patient care at both lower cost and reduced healthcare worker burden. She is co-PI on the International Training and Education Center for Health’s (I-TECH) integrated voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) program in Zimbabwe and PI for an NIH R21 testing the safety of two-way, text-based follow-up for VMMC, also in Zimbabwe.
Currently, Dr. Feldacker’s work in Zimbabwe focuses on using direct, interactive, provider-to-patient texting to improve identification and reporting of adverse events (AEs) among male circumcision patients, reducing unnecessary post-operative visits and VMMC program costs. Her other Zimbabwe-based research aims to help understand trends in AEs, ensure adolescent VMMC patient safety, assess the benefits and risks of performance-based financing, and strengthen routine data quality for accurate and timely reporting.
Previously, as I-TECH seconded staff, Dr. Feldacker provided technical assistance to expand the capacity of the Lighthouse Trust (Malawi’s largest public antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic) to build robust and sustainable systems for the collection of strategic information. She guided the design, development, and pilot of a point-of-care, electronic medical records system to integrate ART and Tuberculosis (TB) patient management in partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health and National TB program.
Her broad implementation and research experience includes closing HIV service delivery gaps in Malawi; task-shifting of healthcare workers in Mozambique; understanding patterns in loss-to-follow-up within routine HIV program settings; strengthening integration of family planning into HIV-related care; and exploring spatial relationships of HIV-related behaviors in Malawi.
Program Highlights
