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 |  | Aron Primack, MD, is a program officer directing the Fogarty International Center's programs on tobacco control and environmental and ocuppational health and a program encompassing a re-entry program for visiting scientists from developing countries. Prior to this, he was a full-time associate professor in the department of preventive medicine and biometrics at the Uniformed Sciences University of the Health Sciences. In the beginning of his career, Dr. Primack spent 17 years in a private practice of medical oncology in the Washington, DC area and taught on the staffs of Georgetown Medical School and George Washington Medical School. From 1990-1993 he was Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Niger, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania, living in Niger. After a six month consultancy for the Office of Alternative Medicine at NIH, he joined the staff of the Health Care Financing Administration, first as medical director in Program Integrity and later as a medical director for the Center for Health Plans and Providers. | |
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GTRN: Dr. Primack, can you explain the fundamental objectives behind the Fogarty tobacco control grants?
Dr. Primack: To develop capacity for research in developing countries by training people on high-level research projects related to tobacco control research around the world. | |
GTRN: In your experience, what are the most common barriers to tobacco control research in developing countries?
Dr. Primack: There are two major deficits: money and expertise. Even in the face of excellent on-going work by well-recognized researchers,e.g. Prabhat Jha in India and Richard Peto in Russia, the work cannot go forward at the rate and size that would be appropriate because of lack of funding.
In many countries, the patient population and the need are there. For example, Southeast Asia has a definite need for tobacco control research but the researchers are not there. There is a need to develop a cadre of researchers, e.g. people with the level of research understanding of an MPH or higher, such as Linda Ferry from Loma Linda University is now doing.
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GTRN: Do you think a one-stop-shopping website could be helpful to Fogarty and other tobacco control researchers if it provides tools and opportunities for collaboration?
Dr. Primack: Clearly it would be if it is easily navigable. When we first published the RFA on tobacco control research in developing countries, I was bombarded with requests from potential researchers or those with a desire to develop such ability from low- and middle-income to find high-income country partners with whom to collaborate.
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GTRN: How do you think the Global Tobacco Research Network can help to facilitate the Fogarty program’s objectives?
Dr. Primack: The Fogarty Program, although large by the Fogarty International Center’s standards, is a small nidus for programs to build on. There is a great need for a vehicle to allow Tobacco Control Researchers to find each other, contact each other, and ultimately to join forces that should be economically and project-wise good for science. | |
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