Building the Future of Data Science in Africa Together: �The D-SINE Africa Experience

DS-I AFRICA VIRTUAL NETWORKING AND EXCHANGE

APRIL 8, 2026

Chichom Mefire (Cameroon)

Catherine Juillard (UCLA)

Salome Maswime (UCT)

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OUTLINE

PART 1: Background: Presentation of D-SINE Africa

• Goals and aims
• Hub Cores
• Main achievements

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PART 2: Networking Experience

• Data Governance WG
• The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration
• Support for the development of a Trauma Registry in Kenya
• Next steps and further opportunities

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Conclusion

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PART I. BACKGROUND

D-SINE Africa Research Hub

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• NIH/FOGARTY U54 Funding Mechanism
• U54TW012087
• http://dsineafricaub.org

Data Science Center for the study of Surgery and Injuries in Africa (D-SINE Africa)

• Fruit of a multi-institutional partnership

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🡺Networking is a core pillar of our Hub

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Data Science Center for the study of Surgery and Injuries in Africa

Goals

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• Decrease the burden of injuries and surgical diseases through improved surveillance, prevention, and treatment

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• Improve access to quality surgical care in Cameroon and other SSA countries

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Specific Aims

Hub Organization

• Administrative Core
• Leadership team (UoB, UCLA, UCT)
• Support Cores
• Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC)
• Capacity Building Core (CBC)
• Research Projects
• Project 1: Health Equity Surveillance
• Project 2: Trauma Outcomes Prediction
• Future Projects
• DS-I Consortium Projects
• Seed Grant Program
• New Center Initiatives

Project 1: A novel cluster-based algorithm to estimate socio-economic status for health surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa

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MPI team

Catherine Juillard

Georges Nguefack Tsague

Co-investigators

Salome Maswime

Fanny Dissak Delon

Managers

Rasheedat Oke

Lidwine Nsen

Alan Hubbard

Isaac Obeng-Gyasi

Project 1 Achievements

• Economic Clusters developed for 33 countries using DHS data
• Efficient Definition of Socio Economic Status (SES) in SSA using only 4 assets.

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• Real-time SES data being collected in Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa

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• Article submitted in a peer-reviewed Journal

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• SES clusters Publicly available:

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https://ahubb40.github.io/EconoCluster/

Project 2: Using data-adaptive methods to optimize follow up of injured patients after hospital discharge in Cameroon

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MPI team

Catherine Juillard

Alain Chichom Mefire

Co-investigators

Nicholas Tendongfor

Sandra McCoy

Sithombo Maqungo

Fanny Dissak Delon

Managers

Rasheedat Oke

Mbiarikai Agbor

Arole Darwin Touko

Project 2 Achievements

The Cameroon Trauma Registry (CTR)

• Large, multi-institutional, prospectively collected centralized trauma database.
• Include rare out of hospital follow-up data.

>17,000 enrolled

~10,000 post discharge follow up data available for up to six months

Capacity Building Core – Future Projects

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The Sustainable Trauma Research, Education, and Mentorship Program (STREaM) Cameroon

Chichom, Juillard

NIH D43TW012186

Mama Foupouagnigni

Sandra McCoy

Catherine Juillard

Alain Chichom Mefire

Capacity Building Core – Future Projects Achievements

• Training Curriculum Development
• The data science methods toolkit (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSF-CTSI, AIMS, U Buea)
• Fundamentals of Trauma Research curriculum (D43)

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• Funding of African researchers
• 1^st cycle: 6 seed and 2 pilot grants, total of USD 126,978
• 2^nd cycle: 2 seed and 6 pilot grants, total of USD 85,000

Researchers’ Origins:

• Cameroon
• Nigeria
• Ethiopia
• Uganda
• South Africa

PART II. NETWORKING EXPERIENCE

• Transforming collaborative pathways into sustainable impact through proven models

Data Governance Working Group

Active participation to datathons and to the Data governance WG:

• Writing Data sharing policy
• ⁠Setting federated remote data analysis
• Making metadata findable in public catalogues

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• METADATA AVAILABLE IN THE ELWAZI CATALOGUE

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https://dsineafrica.org/news/elwazi-data-catalog/

The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration

DS-I Consortium Meeting 2023, Kigali (Rwanda):

The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration

INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION

“Development of a mHEALTH application for crowdsourced injury reporting”

• NIH 3U54TW012087-04S1
• Christie, Chichom Supplement MPI

The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration

• Support for Dr. Christie further provided by K01TW012689-01 (Christie PI), R21TTW012609 (Christie, Chichom MPI)
• Support for Drs. Tabe, Tanue, Embolo further provided by D43TW012186 (Chichom, Juillard MPI)
• Support for Stafford further provided by CDC  U2GGH002417 (epidemiologist), CDC  U2GGH002332 (sub-contract PI), CDC  U2GGH002335 (sub-contract PI), CDC U2GGH002499 (Co-I), NIH R21AI179493 (PI), NIH U54TW012041 (MPI), NIH D43TW012493-01S1 (Co-I)
• Support for Dr. Blanco Herrera further provided by PEPFAR/USAID

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The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration

The INFORM Africa – D-SINE Africa collaboration

Support for the Development of a Trauma Registry in Kenya

USAID-funded impact evaluation of Rescue.co

• Training of Research assistants
• Assistance in Data quality verification
• Collaboration : data analysis

• D-SINE Executive Director

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• UCLA GloCal fellow

Next Steps and further opportunities

• Partnership with Aga Khan University (UZIMA-DS Hub Administrative grant) – Aim 2

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• National Policy alignment: CTR 🡺 DHIS-2

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• Create an ATLS training pole in Central Africa

CONCLUSION

D-SINE Africa: Networking & Collaboration Roadmap

Join us!

Opportunities for Collaboration

• Secondary Data Analysis
• Collaborate on our prospectively collected trauma databases.

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• SES Tool Validation:
• Testing our 4-asset SES model in new geographic contexts.

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• ATLS Implementation
• Join our effort to build a clinical training hub for Central Africa.

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• Fundamentals of Trauma Research (D43)
• Curriculum can be shared or we can partner if needed

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Join us!

Rejoignez nous!

THANK YOU!

MERCI !

Ministère de la Santé Publique

University of Buea

University of California Los Angeles

University of Cape Town

University of California Berkeley

PASE at UCLA

AIMS CAMEROON

FIC/OSC/OD

Ministère de la Santé Publique

University of Buea

University of California Los Angeles

University of Cape Town

University of California Berkeley

PASE at UCLA

AIMS CAMEROON

FIC/OSC/OD