Implementation and Operations Research

National Strategic Plan encourages and promotes operational research to generate evidence on effectiveness of interventions and strategies aimed towards TB elimination. State TB Training and Demonstration Centers (STDC) being technical support structures in the state, should actively take a role in planning and conducting operational research. 

STDCs need to be strengthened to independently plan and execute need-based operational/ implementation research (OR). This would include:

  1. Identify research priority for the state to better achieve the program objectives in alignment with the operational research guidelines of NTEP.

  2. Disseminate research priority areas with the potential researchers, institutes, and agencies for the conduct of operational research. 

  3. Capacity building sessions for interested program staff to design research studies and proposals in the form of an annual OR Workshop
  4. Call for Proposals, review & approval of proposal in coordination with State OR Committee
  5. Setup and host a formal Institutional Ethics Committee to review and approve any research proposals. They may also leverage any existing IEC at a co-located institution.
  6. Applying for and securing funds for executing research studies
  7. Execute approved studies
  8. Review progress of approved studies every quarter
  9. In coordination with Medical college task force, STDCs should also plan to conduct OR dissemination workshop annually. 
  10. Advocate for policy/ operational changes in the state and the country, based on OR findings
  11. Maintain a data base of all TB research  (past/ ongoing/ published) from the state
  12. Document best practices in the state, publish and disseminate them for learnings and necessary programmatic uptake

The Epidemiologist of STDC will be the Nodal Officer for Operational Research related activities.

STDC should ensure that required budget for OR related activities are proposed through the PIP mechanisms. It is essential for the STDC to have a concrete plan in terms of number of research projects proposed in the PIP.

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