The World Health Organization has re-designated LSTM as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence Synthesis for Infectious and Tropical Diseases.
The designation, which originally came in 2010, builds on an extensive work programme already in existence, through the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, an international network of 500 authors co-ordinated from LSTM. The re-designation comes following what WHO describes as a valuable contribution from LSTM and will run until 2018.
Professor Paul Garner, who will remain as Head of the Centre, said: “We are delighted at the re-designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre. It acknowledges the excellent work already carried out in providing top quality health evidence to assist delivery of programmes and health interventions in low and middle income countries, and underlines WHO’s confidence in our ability to continue our contribution in the post Millennium Development Goals environment.”
LSTM will support WHO in developing recommendations for health care policy, developing guidelines for the management of infectious diseases, organising training in research methods and assisting in the communication of research results to policy makers, clinicians , teachers and the public in developing countries.
With the additional status of a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training on Maternal and Newborn Health, LSTM is among 800 premier institutions from over 80 countries currently supporting WHO on a regional, country and global level. Through the scheme WHO gains access to top centres worldwide and the institutional capacity to ensure the scientific validity of global health work.