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Hire Joel N.

United States

USD 50 /hr

Health Scientist & Primary Care Physician with 15+ years of expereince in clinical and public health research.

Profile Summary

Scientific and Professional Works My first research experience was on my medical degree thesis, which sought answers about why many women die from avoidable pregnancy-related causes in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings from the thesis titled, Maternal Mortality: Its medical determinants and socio-cultural perception in Bonaberi-Cameroon showed that hemorrhage and obstructed labor were major causes of maternal deaths. I subsequently pursued a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology to continue my search for solutions to high maternal deaths, thanks to this early research endeavor. Some research questions need basic biomedical research studies, propelling me into basic biomedical research to investigate the molecular pathways to the onset of fibrotic lung diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We hypothesized that human bone marrow-derived stem cell-released exosomes could be a potential therapy for interstitial lung diseases. These studies led to publications in the Journal of Immunology, Nature Communications, and Cytotherapy. Following these discoveries, I made contributions to an application for an Investigation New Drug (IND). My basic biomedical research efforts also led to a book chapter published at the Academic Press4 (Cytotherapy, 2019. https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.jcyt.2019.03.580). My duties as a fellow in Global HIV Implementation Science Research at ICAP-Columbia University gave me the exposure needed in designing, implementing, and evaluating public health programs. I designed, implemented, and analyzed the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs in Eswatini, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. We presented the findings at the 3rd International Workshop on HIV and Adolescence in Kenya in 2019. Recently, I published the results of this study on knowledge of HIV status among adolescent mothers at their first antenatal clinic in the BMC Reproductive Health journal (Reprod Health, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01090-2). This study showed the need to address the huge gap in HIV testing among adolescent girls before they become pregnant. I was first author in a recently published peer-reviewed article on approaches to measuring the social impact of public health leadership training programs, sponsored by the Afya Bora Consortium and the Sustaining Technical and Analytic Resources (STAR) fellowship programs. We titled the article Measuring for Success: Evaluating Leadership Training Programs for Sustainable Impact. Background: In an era of global health security challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a greater need for strong leadership. Over the past decades, governments and philanthropic organizations have made significant investments in global health leadership development programs to address this need. Evaluating the societal impact of these programs remains challenging, despite consensus on the importance of public health leadership. Objective: This article identifies the gaps and highlights the critical role of monitoring and evaluation approaches in assessing the impact of global health leadership programs. Importantly, we also propose the theory of change (TOC) as a common framework and identify a set of tools and indicators that leadership programs can adapt to and use. Methods: We carried out an informal review of major global health leadership programs, including a literature review on leadership program evaluation approaches. Current practices for assessing the short- to long-term outcomes of leadership training programs were explored and synthesized. The theory of change is one of the program theory frameworks we examined. We find the TOC approach can be enhanced by integrating evaluation-specific frameworks and establishing broad stakeholder buy-in. We highlight measurement challenges, proposed outcome indicators, and evaluation methodologies, and outline the future direction for such efforts. Findings: Most evaluation of current leadership programs is focused on short-term individual-level outcomes, while reports on long-term societal impact were limited. Reciprocal impacts on and benefits for the "host" organizations were not included in evaluation metrics. Most programs had program logic or result chains, but with no well-articulated program theories. Conclusion: Key stakeholders involved in leadership training programs benefit from the evidence of rigorous program evaluations to inform decisions that address barriers in fostering global health leadership and improving population health outcomes. Insight into a reciprocal change in host organizations is important. Evaluation of global health leadership training must go beyond the individual trainee and encompass organizational and community-level impacts. Documentation of long-lasting organizational and societal impacts is essential for donors to appreciate the return on their investment. Important points: Evaluation plays an important role in understanding how leadership development takes place and how it contributes to improving public health outcomes. Making the case for investments in leadership development programs requires robust evidence from monitoring and evaluation strategies that link investments beyond the individual level to longer-term societal impacts. The first critical step towards a strategy for success is for leadership programs to build, articulate, share, and use their program theories or theories of change. Theories of change help identify the pathways (and potential tensions) through which leadership development programs affect change at the individual, organizational, and community levels. Evaluation methods that examine outcomes of leadership programs should be multi-method, multi-level, and, where possible, include counterfactual outcomes. Allocation of funds to evaluating the ongoing and long-lasting societal impact of leadership programs should be a routine practice (Annals of Global Health, 2021; https:/doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3221). In a study titled From Option B+ to Universal “Test and Treat” in Cameroon: identification and evaluation of district-level factors associated with retention in Care, we studied factors that were significantly associated with retention in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services in Cameroon, using modified Poisson and Cox proportional hazard regression models. Our findings informed the nationwide rollout of PMTCT services in Cameroon Background: The retention of women in Option B+ services is crucial for eliminating new pediatric HIV infections. However, there are few studies on factors influencing retention at the district level. This study evaluates the factors associated with retention in the two health districts of Cameroon. Methods: From September 1, 2015, to February 29, 2016, we reviewed the records of pregnant and breastfeeding women initiating Option B+, a lifelong approach to preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, between October 2013 and July 2014. We abstracted sociodemographic and clinical data from registers in 22 health facilities in the Bamenda urban and Kumba rural districts into spreadsheets. Cox regression age-adjusted survival curves were used to compare retention probabilities at 6 and 12 months post-antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation. Multivariable modified Poisson regressions were run to estimate adjusted relative risk (aRR) of factors associated with retention in PMTCT care at 12 months post-ART initiation. We used the STATA statistical software for the analyses. Findings: By health district, knowing the male partner’s HIV-negative status (aRR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.13-1.50) in the Bamenda urban and enrolling early in ANC (aRR: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.21-3.41) in the Kumba rural district, had significantly higher retention rates after adjusting for maternal age, marital status, and distance from the health facility. Conclusions: Overall, factors influencing retention varied by urban or rural district. Therefore, tailored district-level interventions are needed to enhance early ANC enrollment in rural and partner HIV status disclosure in urban health districts to improve retention in PMTCT care. (International Journal of Maternal and Child and AIDS, 2023, 12 (2).https:/doi.org/ 10.21106/ijma.631). Recently, as the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Advisor and Consultant for the CDC Foundation assigned to the Massachusetts’ Department of Public Health, I used a systems-level approach to collect, analyze and interpret data to inform the development of quality improvement initiatives and robust implementation strategies in delivering healthcare and public health programs relating to maternal, neonatal and child health. These data-driven findings guided the technical recommendations that changed policies to improve the effectiveness of MCH programs in the state. In addition, another critical area was to provide technical assistance in establishing and evaluating essential attributes of disease surveillance systems.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Public Health
• ★ Disease Control And Prevention
• ★ Literature Review
• ☆ STATA
• ☆ Infectious Disease
• ☆ HIV/AIDS Treatment
• ☆ Epidemiology
• ☆ Contact Tracing
• ☆ Community Health Services
• ☆ Hypothesis
• ☆ Peer Review
• ☆ Research Methodology
• ☆ Survey Design & Methodology
• ☆ Meta-Research
• ☆ Literature Search
• ☆ Gray Literature Search
• ☆ Presentation Design
• ☆ Medical Writing
• ☆ Medical Content Writing
• ☆ Research Summaries & Abstracts
• ☆ Cochrane Reviews
• ☆ Medical Copywriting
• ☆ Systematic Literature Review
• ☆ Scientific Proofreading & Editing
• ☆ Proofreading & Editing
• ☆ Six Sigma

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI

Writing Clinical Trial Documentation, Technical Writing, Copywriting

Research Meta-Research, Feasibility Study, Gap Analysis, Gray Literature Search

Consulting Healthcare Consulting

Data & AI Statistical Analysis

Work Experience

Program Manager (Health and Nutrition)

CDC Foundation

January 2022 - October 2022

Post-doctoral Fellow Global HIV Implementation Research

Columbia University

September 2018 - August 2020

Education

MPH,PhD (GSPH & Medicine)

University of Pittsburgh

September 2011 - August 2018

Certifications

• Certified Scrum Master

  Six Sigma Global Institute

  https://www.scrum-certifications.com/

  December 2022 - Present

• Educational Comission for Foreign Medical Graduates

  Educational Comission for Foreign Medical Graduates

  June 2010 - Present

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Joel Njah, Mary Ann Chiasson, William Reidy (2021). Known HIV status among adolescent women attending antenatal care services in Eswatini, Ethiopia and Mozambique . Reproductive Health.

Joel Njah, Bhakti Hansoti, Adebusuyi Adeyami, Kerry Bruce, Gabrielle O’Malley, Mary Kay Gugerty, Benjamin H. Chi, Nanyombi Lubimbi, Elizabeth Steen, Sonora Stampfly, et al. (2021). Measuring for Success: Evaluating Leadership Training Programs for Sustainable Impact . Annals of Global Health.

AU - Ortiz, Louis AU - Njah, J AU - Marrocco, Antonella AU - Detweiler, A AU - Milosevic, J AU - Phinney, Donald AU - Lai, R AU - Choo, A AU - Tan, S AU - Lim, S PY - 2019/05/01 SP - S15 T1 - Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSC) exosomes Couple the RV/PA during Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) VL - 21 DO - 10.1016/j.jcyt.2019.03.580 JO - Cytotherapy .

(2015). Mesenchymal stem cells use extracellular vesicles to outsource mitophagy and shuttle microRNAs . Nature Communications.

(2014). TNFR1/Phox Interaction and TNFR1 Mitochondrial Translocation Thwart Silica-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis . The Journal of Immunology.

Knowledge of HIV status among adolescent women attending antenatal care services in Eswatini, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Joel Njah, Mary Ann Chiasson, William Reidy.

BOOK CHAPTER

(2019). Mesenchymal Stem (Stromal) Cell Communications in Their Niche and Beyond: The Role of Extra Cellular Vesicles and Organelle Transfer in Lung Regeneration . Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences.

(2019). Mesenchymal Stem (Stromal) Cell Communications in Their Niche and Beyond: The Role of Extra Cellular Vesicles and Organelle Transfer in Lung Regeneration. Encyclopedia of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.