About Us
The Knowledge Translation Unit is a Clinical Research Unit of the University of Cape Town Lung Institute. It was formally established in 2005 to continue work begun in 2000 to provide primary care guidelines and training on respiratory disease. It has since expanded its scope to address priority conditions in primary care in line with the Lung Institute’s mandate to “address priority health issues in Southern Africa through education, research and service.”
Associate professor Lara Fairall founded the Knowledge Translation Unit in 2005, and is the current Head. Dr Beverly Draper ran the Unit between 2009 and 2013 when Lara scaled back her work commitments while her children were still very young. The Unit is divided into three teams and employs 20 staff:
Content development: led by Dr Ruth Cornick
Implementation and training: led by Lauren Anderson
Research: led by Associate professor Lara Fairall
Business Management and Administration: led by Faye Eshraghi
PACK Global development: led by Tracy Eastman
The Knowledge Translation Unit is funded for contract work performed for local and international health authorities, and through grants received from science funders to undertake research projects. These two funding streams support the Unit’s commitment to knowledge translation: facilitating the uptake of research outputs into policy and practice.
Current funders of the Unit include:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (through Stellenbosch University)
- Children’s Hospital Trust
- Department of Health, Western Cape Provincial Government, RSA
- Department for International Development, UK (through PRIME)
- Health Resources and Services Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services (through MEPI)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, US
- National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, US
- The Peter Sowerby Foundation
Past funders of the Unit include:
- Belgian Technical Cooperation
- Canadian International Development Agency
- Dignitas International
- Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government, RSA
- Development Cooperation Ireland
- Discovery Health, RSA
- International Development Research Centre, Canada
- Medical Research Council, Britain
- South African Medical Research Council
- USAID, through PEPFAR
- World Health Organization
Much of the Unit’s work is undertaken collaboratively in partnership with other academics and NGOs.
Active collaborations include:
- African Population and Health Research Center, Kenya
- BMJ Group, UK
- Centre for Studies in Family Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, Canada
- Chronic Diseases Initiative in Africa (CDIA), Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, RSA
- Department of Population Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
- Discipline of Psychology, University of KwaZulu Natal
- Federal University of Bahia School of Medicine, Brazil
- Harvard Medical School, US
- Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, UK
- Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, UK
- Open University, UK
- Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME)
- Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships (SHIP), South African Medical Research Council
- SURMEPI, University of Stellenbosch
- UnitedHealth Group
The Knowledge Translation Unit also acknowledges the contribution of the over 200 clinical experts, Department of Health representatives and patient advocate groups who have given input into the development and revisions of the Unit’s guidelines (contributors), as well as those users of the Unit’s programmes –primary care clinicians, pharmacists, lay health workers and trainers – whose feedback helped to refine and improve the guideline and training approach.
