Years of hard work and dedication to individuals, people, families and communities affected by HIV, were rewarded when Ms Joan Coetzee was elected as international co-vice chair of the Protocol Development and Implementation Subcommittee (PDISC) of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG).
Coetzee is responsible for the portfolio that facilitates the network between member countries outside the USA, while the other co-vice chair manages the members within the USA. The ACTG is funded by the National Institutes of Health and is the largest network of expert clinical investigators and therapeutic clinical trials units in the world.
In June this year, Coetzee attended the annual ACTG meeting in Washington, where she played a facilitating role and led group discussions. She also visited the Frontier Science Technology and Research Foundation (FSTRF) in Amherst, New York to deliver a presentation entitled "A perspective on international sites, quality assurance and management systems".
"It is a great honour to represent our research unit in the international arena of community-based research on HIV and Tuberculosis (TB)," said Coetzee, a senior project manager at the FAM-CRU (previously KID-CRU) research unit at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University (SU). FAM-CRU concentrates primarily on research in the treatment and management of families affected by HIV/AIDS and TB.
"This position offers a platform to give input on matters influencing research teams on ground level, for example the implementation of new projects, the feasibility of protocols for specific environments, as well as to represent the views of the nursing staff," she says.
Her involvement in FAM-CRU's Community Advisory Board (CAB) equipped her with the necessary experience and insight in community based research to deliver significant contributions. "The scientists don't necessarily have the insight to adapt their research to appeal to the people participating in research studies. For example, they will compile questionnaires in scientific language and ask how high one's nicotine intake per day is. I have learnt from experience that it is better to ask how many cigarettes do you smoke per day and then do the research on how much nicotine this translates to."
Coetzee believes it is important to take different cultural practices into account to be able to complete research projects successfully. "One must understand the population to implement your protocols successfully and accommodate obstacles proactively," she explains. "Examples include the use of traditional healers to treat certain illnesses and the custom in some religions where priests have to bless the medication before it can be used."
Coetzee, a trained nurse, has been a member of the FAM-CRU research unit at the FMHS for the past 14 years and has extensive experience in research on HIV and caring for families affected by HIV.
"I started a new career at KID-CRU in those days and gained research experience here. Today, I am aware of the purpose and impact of research and the difference it makes in communities," says Coetzee.
