Center for Health Organization Transformation creating Strategy for Kenya Biomedical Industrial Park

Creating the strategy for a master-planned biomedical industrial park in Kenya is the first international project of the Center for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT) at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded CHOT will work with Ustawi Biomedical Research Innovation and Industrial Centers of Africa (UBRICA) on the project termed UBRICA ONE, which will be located on 4,000 acres in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. The biomedical industrial park will include hospitals, research facilities, residential areas, recreational areas and industry.

The CHOT research team will work with UBRICA to create a strategy for the biomedical industrial park as a sustainable human development enterprise that meets the needs of Kenyans and the environment in which they live. Initial research will be conducted on international development models of health specific to Kenya as well as conducting a stakeholder analysis in order to develop a strategic plan for UBRICA.

“We are pleased to add UBRICA as one of our industry partners, and to work with them on translating their vision for this enterprise into evidence-based strategy and design,” said Bita Kash, Ph.D., M.B.A., director of CHOT.

The research team will consist of faculty and students from not only the Texas A&M School of Public Health, but other Texas A&M University colleges and centers including the Center for Health Systems and Design and Architecture for Health Program at the College of Architecture, along with the Colleges of Education and Human Development and Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

“We at UBRICA feel very fortunate for CHOT to take this work of creating sound strategy for our proposed biomedical park. The results of the work by the CHOT team will break a brand-new path for globalization of health that will facilitate understanding on effective ways of dealing with the most complex health problems affecting people in Africa,” said Macharia Waruingi, M.D., UBRICA’s Chief Executive Officer. “The strategic plan that will come out of research by the CHOT team will also enable American health care leaders to understand how they can contribute effectively in building and managing health care organizations in African countries, to prevent and contain diseases of global health importance such as the Ebola virus.”

CHOT is one of NSF’s 70 Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) in the U.S. and the only I/UCRC focused on innovations in health care delivery. Through their cooperative research model, CHOT researcher and industry members from across all spectrums of health care work with university faculty and graduate students to conduct research on strategies for improving health and transforming the delivery of health care.