A series of small studies in Ghana may spark big changes in that country’s response to HIV
What Big Data Won’t Tell You
The science of global health is propelled by statistics. The larger a research study’s sample size, the more accurately researchers can map trends in health issues from infant mortality to the spread of HIV. But it’s not always about the numbers. That’s what Jennifer Beard, a School of Public Health assistant professor of global health and a principal investigator in the BU Center for Global Health & Development (CGHD), found when she and several University colleagues teamed with leading HIV scientists from Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to conduct a series of small-scale qualitative studies of high-risk populations in the city of Kumasi. Boston University global health researchers, internationally respected for their HIV assessments in Kenya, South Africa, and Vietnam, are now helping Ghana point its HIV treatment and prevention in new directions.