Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Evaluation Institute for Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, 4136 Parran Hall - 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, United States of America.
Psychiatry and Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2017 Oct 24;15(1):92. doi: 10.1186/s12961-017-0254-0.
There is a critical gap between needs and available resources for mental health treatment across the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In countries committed to increasing resources to address these needs it is important to conduct research, not only to assess the depth of mental health needs and the current provision of public and private mental health services, but also to examine implementation methods and evaluate mental health approaches to determine which methods are most effective in local contexts. However, research resources in many LMICs are inadequate, largely because conventional research training is time-consuming and expensive. Adapting a hackathon model may be a feasible method of increasing capacity for mental health services research in resource-poor countries.
To explore the feasibility of this approach, we developed a 'grantathon', i.e. a research training workshop, to build capacity among new investigators on implementation research of Indian government-funded mental health programmes, which was based on a need expressed by government agencies. The workshop was conducted in Delhi, India, and brought together junior faculty members working in mental health services settings throughout the country, experienced international behavioural health researchers and representatives of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the prime Indian medical research funding agency. Pre- and post-assessments were used to capture changes in participants' perceived abilities to develop proposals, design research studies, evaluate outcomes and develop collaborations with ICMR and other researchers. Process measures were used to track the number of single-or multi-site proposals that were generated and funded.
Participants (n = 24) generated 12 single- or multi-site research grant applications that will be funded by ICMR.
The grantathon model described herein can be modified to build mental health services research capacity in other contexts. Given that this workshop not only was conceptualised and delivered but also returned results in less than 1 year, this model has the potential to quickly build research capacity and ultimately reduce the mental health treatment gap in resource-limited settings.
全世界，尤其是中低收入国家（LMICs），在精神卫生治疗方面存在着巨大的供需差距。在致力于增加资源以满足这些需求的国家，开展研究至关重要，不仅要评估精神卫生需求的深度和当前公共及私人精神卫生服务的提供情况，还要研究实施方法并评估精神卫生方法，以确定哪些方法在当地环境中最有效。然而，许多 LMICs 的研究资源不足，这在很大程度上是因为传统的研究培训既耗时又昂贵。采用黑客马拉松模式可能是增加资源匮乏国家精神卫生服务研究能力的可行方法。
为了探索这种方法的可行性，我们开发了一种“资助马拉松”，即一个研究培训研讨会，以培养新调查人员对印度政府资助的精神卫生计划实施研究的能力，这是基于政府机构提出的需求。该研讨会在印度德里举行，汇集了全国精神卫生服务机构的初级教员、经验丰富的国际行为健康研究人员以及印度医学研究理事会（ICMR）的代表，ICMR 是印度主要的医学研究资助机构。我们使用预评估和后评估来捕捉参与者在制定提案、设计研究、评估结果以及与 ICMR 和其他研究人员建立合作方面的能力变化。使用过程指标来跟踪生成和资助的单一或多地点提案的数量。
参与者（n=24）共提出了 12 项单一或多地点研究资助申请，这些申请将由 ICMR 资助。
本文所述的资助马拉松模式可以进行修改，以在其他环境中建立精神卫生服务研究能力。鉴于这个研讨会不仅是概念化和交付的，而且在不到 1 年的时间内就产生了结果，这种模式有可能快速建立研究能力，并最终减少资源有限环境中的精神卫生治疗差距。
