Welcome to the May 2026 newsletter!
Table of Contents:
- Small Event Award Recipients
- Upcoming Events
- Meet-the-Modelers call for volunteers
- Job Opportunities
- Training Opportunities
- Subgroups, Working Groups, and Regional Activities
- Seminar Recap and Recordings
Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter.
Apply HERE for Q2 2026 Cycle
Register for the AMMnet Monthly Seminar | June 2, 15 hr UTC
From Data to Decisions: Ghana’s Subnational Tailoring Approach for Malaria Interventions
Presenter: Ferguson Duvor
This presentation focuses on how Ghana used data as the foundation for Subnational Tailoring(SNT) of malaria interventions during the 2025/2026 planning cycle. It demonstrates how multiple data sources—including DHIMS2 routine surveillance data, household surveys, intervention coverage reports, climate and environmental datasets, entomological evidence, and population statistics—were systematically integrated to stratify malaria risk across 261 districts and guide intervention targeting.
The presentation highlights the importance of rigorous data quality management through completeness checks, consistency validation, outlier detection, and imputation methods to ensure reliable analyses. Using adjusted malaria incidence models, geospatial prevalence mapping, seasonality analysis, and care-seeking adjustments, Ghana developed evidence-based prioritization frameworks for interventions such as ITNs, IRS, SMC, malaria vaccines, IPTSc, MDA, and PDMC.
Overall, the presentation illustrates that effective SNT depends on high-quality, multi-source data systems and advanced analytical approaches that enable precise, locally tailored, and resource-efficient malaria control decision.
About the Presenter
Ferguson Duvor is a public health professional and malaria data specialist with over ten years of experience in malaria control, health information systems, and infectious disease research in Ghana. He serves as an Associate Analyst and Data Manager with the Ghana National Malaria Elimination Program, where he works within the Research, Surveillance, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit to strengthen routine health information systems, improve data quality, and support evidence-based decision-making for malaria control and elimination.
With a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Monitoring and Evaluation, he specializes in the use of data and analytical methods to optimize public health interventions and strategic planning. Ferguson has played a key role in Ghana’s Subnational Tailoring (SNT) of malaria interventions, supporting stratification analysis, intervention targeting, burden estimation, and priority-setting across the country’s health districts.
Through his collaboration with Applied Health Analytics for Delivery and Innovation and other technical partners, he contributes to applied malaria modelling, geospatial analysis, and data-driven prioritization of interventions such as IRS, SMC, ITNs, and malaria vaccination. His work focuses on translating complex epidemiological and programmatic data into practical strategies that improve the precision, efficiency, and impact of malaria elimination efforts in Ghana.
Real-time interpretation to FRENCH will be available and Portuguese speakers can activate the CAPTIONS feature on Zoom
Register Here for the Seminar Series
Register for the AMMnet Asia Pacific Seminar | June 19, 5 hr UTC
From diagnostics to decision-making, AI is redefining modern medicine. Discover how healthcare systems can harness AI responsibly through ethical governance, clinical oversight, and real-world implementation strategies in Thailand and beyond.
Perspective of AI in Healthcare
Presenter: Dr. Passakorn Wanchaijiraboon
As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms medical practice — from diagnostic imaging and genomic analysis to clinical documentation and drug prescribing — the need for clear ethical guardrails has become urgent. This presentation introduces the proposed Medical Council of Thailand announcement on AI ethics guidelines for medical practitioners, developed with reference to international frameworks from the WHO, AMA, US FDA, the EU AI Act, IMDRF, and the FUTURE-AI Consortium, as well as Thailand's NSTDA AI Ethics Principles. The guidelines are structured around seven core ethical principles: privacy, security and safety, reliability, fairness and non-discrimination, transparency and explainability, accountability, and human oversight.
A key practical component is the Medical AI Risk Assessment (MAIRA) — adapted from the UK Camden Council's AI Risk Assessment (AIRA) framework — which provides a structured, lifecycle-based checklist for healthcare organizations to evaluate AI systems before clinical deployment. Covering five stages from overall assessment, planning, training and testing, review, through to deployment and post-market monitoring, the MAIRA ensures that physicians remain the final decision-makers while leveraging AI as a tool for augmented — not autonomous — clinical intelligence. Real-world case studies illustrate the practical application of these principles in Thai healthcare settings.
About the Presenter
Dr. Passakorn Wanchaijiraboon is a Medical Oncologist and Vice Director of Phrapokklao Hospital for AI and Medical Innovation. He serves as Secretary of the AI Committee of the Medical Council of Thailand, where he plays a central role in drafting the national guidelines on artificial intelligence ethics for medical practitioners. His areas of expertise span clinical oncology, AI governance in healthcare, medical device regulation, and digital health policy.
He has been actively involved in developing policy frameworks that integrate international AI ethics standards — including those from WHO, AMA, US FDA, and the EU AI Act — into the Thai medical regulatory context. Dr. Passakorn is committed to ensuring that AI technologies in medicine are deployed safely, ethically, and with the physician remaining at the center of clinical decision-making.
Register Here for the Seminar
Register for the Francophone Hackathon | June 23, 15 hr UTC
Climate, Data and Malaria: Building Models with R, in French
Instructor: Dr. Charlene Naomie Tedto
This two-hour hands-on hackathon session focuses on teaching participants how to access, process, visualize, and integrate climate data into simple malaria transmission analyses and models using R. Participants will learn how rainfall and temperature data can be used to explore malaria seasonality, environmental drivers of transmission, and climate-informed epidemiological modelling workflows. The session will cover key steps in climate data science workflows, including accessing open climate datasets, cleaning and preparing data, creating spatial and temporal visualizations, and integrating climate and malaria epidemiological datasets.
We will explore different approaches to analysing and modelling the relationship between climate and malaria, helping participants develop practical analytical skills and flexible problem-solving strategies. The session will also emphasize best practices for reproducible, clear, and efficient climate and epidemiological modelling workflows. Interactive and application-oriented, the session will include the use of a real-world dataset, guiding participants from raw climate data through to analysis-ready outputs and visualizations that can support malaria decision-making and modelling.
Note: This hackathon course will be taught in French.
Register Here for the Hackathon
Meet-the-Modelers: Call for Volunteers!
Thanks to all past presenters for sharing your backgrounds and professional experience!
Want to introduce yourself with a quick 2-minute lightning talk at an upcoming AMMnet monthly seminar?
A great opportunity to:
- Showcase your work
- Gain visibility
- Connect with peers
- Get a certificate of participation
Interested? Send your interest by email to info@ammnet.org.
Job Opportunities
Research Officer/Senior Research Officer
MAP (malariaatlas.org) is a global collaboration of scientists and engineers working across mathematics, statistics, epidemiology and geography to collate the world’s largest repository of malaria data and use that data to parametrise sophisticated mathematical and statistical models to answer urgent policy questions.
We are recruiting two postdoctoral scientists (Research Officer, or Senior Research Officer - level dependent on experience) to join our MAP team in Perth, Western Australia. You will be working under the supervision of senior scientists in MAP to develop and extend our modelling frameworks to improve the accuracy and granularity of our spatiotemporal estimates of malaria burden, as well as designing new modelling approaches to address long-standing open policy questions.
You’ll work collaboratively within the group, including the groups within our Infectious Disease research theme working parallel to MAP in different areas of malaria modelling research, including mechanistic modelling and ecological modelling.
This full-time position will be based at The Kids Research Institute Australia, located within the Perth Children’s Hospital, 15 Hospital Ave, in Nedlands Western Australia and will be offered on an initial 2-year contract.
Application Deadline 05 June 2026
More Information Here
Strategy Officer, Innovation Introduction
The Gates Foundation is hiring a Strategy Officer in Innovation Introduction (18-month LTE) Seattle. The Strategy Officer, Innovation Introduction will be an anchor member of the cross-GPA team, including the Africa Regional Office (ARO), supporting the foundation's global advocacy and communications strategy for introduction of complex products with high potential global health impact, including novel vector control products for use in malaria control and elimination efforts. You will combine strategic coordination, operational rigor, and stakeholder alignment to advance a complex, multi-altitude portfolio spanning global, continental, regional, and country-level efforts and to keep the foundation's commitments sequenced and moving during a critical period for the field.
This role serves as a central mission integrator who, operating without direct authority over workstreams, will remain responsible for ensuring that cross-team scientific, policy, advocacy, and country engagement efforts are highly coordinated, include close partnership with the countries and communities that might benefit, and are coherent, sequenced, and responsive to evolving political, institutional, and operational realities.
Application Deadline 05 June 2026
More Information Here
Non-Tenure Track Faculty Position: Vector-Borne Molecular Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University
This position is to hire a non-tenure track faculty (research associate) member who has expertise in the spatial modeling of vector-borne disease transmission. This person will be a part of the larger, Infectious Disease Dynamics Group at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, under the advisement of Drs. Amy Wesolowski and Derek Cummings. The projects are focused on mapping and modeling malaria, dengue, and Zika transmission including the spread of drug resistant parasites (malaria) and estimating population-level susceptibility using various molecular, epidemiological, and entomological data sets (dengue and Zika).
This position will require the development, evaluation, and investigation of spatial infectious disease transmission models. This position requires an understanding of various types of data, including genomic, serologic, environmental, and epidemiological data. Additionally, this position requires assisting in mentoring and training staff and students as part of research projects.
Specific duties and responsibilities will include: developing transmission models, model fitting, spatial analyses, statistical analyses of complex data sets, writing scientific manuscripts, scientific presentations, and mentoring/teaching staff and students as part of research projects.
Application Deadline 01 June 2026
More Information Here
PhD Student in Forecasting Resistance Spread and Epidemiological Impact (100%) at The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH)
Malaria, transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, caused over a million deaths annually in the early 2000s. Insecticide-treated bed nets have since helped halve global mortality, but this progress is threatened by rising insecticide resistance. We build quantitative, data-driven models to forecast the spread and impact of resistance, guiding the optimal use of new insecticide-treated nets.
This PhD position at Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute focuses on developing advanced spatial and mechanistic models to study the spread and impact of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors. The role combines Bayesian statistics, mathematical modelling, machine learning, quantitative genetics, and programming to build and calibrate resistance-spread models, integrate them into epidemiological simulation platforms, and assess strategies for maintaining insecticide effectiveness.
The candidate will collaborate with leading international researchers from institutions including University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Wageningen University & Research, and University of Basel, while contributing through publications, conferences, and workshops.
More Information Here
Training Opportunities
Scenario Modeling Hub Launches Pandemic Cryptic Phase Modeling Hub
The US Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) is launching a new international initiative to advance modeling capabilities for the early, “cryptic” phase of a pandemic. This period of high uncertainty is critical for informing public health decisions, including assessing the extent of local transmission, anticipating epidemic trajectories, and evaluating the potential impact of interventions.
Participating teams will develop scenario projections for the early emergence of a hypothetical respiratory virus in the US, France, and the UK .
We welcome expressions of interest from modeling groups, domestically and internationally. To participate and/or join the associated Slack channel and periodic meetings, please contact: scenariohub@midasnetwork.us.
The 7th iteration of the disease elimination & eradication course (DEEC)
Delivered by GLIDE in partnership with the University of Global Health Equity and The Carter Center, the course is designed for public health professionals working toward the elimination of preventable infectious diseases—including hashtag#NTDs, hashtag#polio, and hashtag#malaria—DEEC brings together country teams for a collaborative, hands-on learning experience. Through a team-based approach, participants explore core principles of disease elimination and apply them to develop practical, context-specific strategies.
We encourage applications from country teams of 2–5 mid-career professionals, with at least one member from a government disease program. Ideal teams include a mix of Ministry of Health, NGO/UN, and academic partners. Scholarship support is available for eligible teams.
Application Deadline 15 June 2026
More Information Here
Subgroups, Working Groups, and Regional Activities
AMMnet has 7 established local chapters.
If you would like to be connected with local chapters in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tanzania, Liberia, Uganda, Zambia or Benin, you may send email using the respective addresses below or reach out to info@ammnet.org and the Secretariat will connect you to the chapter leadership.
- AMMnet Uganda Chapter, ammnetuganda@gmail.com
- Applied Malaria Modeling Network Zambia, ammnetzambia@gmail.com
- AMMnet Liberia Chapter, ammnet.liberia@gmail.com
- AMMnet Cameroon Chapter, ammnetcameroon@gmail.com
- AMMnet Tanzania Chapter, ammnettz@gmail.com
- AMMnet Burkina Faso Chapter, ammnetburkina@gmail.com
- AMMnet Benin, ammnetbeninchapter@gmail.com
Seminar Recap and Recordings
AMMnet Seminar Series
May 05, 2026, 15 hr UTC
Retrospective and prospective impact of SMC in Mozambique
Presenters: Sonia Enosse & Timóteo A. Sambo
The presentation by Sonia Maria Enosse of Malaria Consortium details the implementation and impact of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprophylaxis (SMC) in Mozambique, with a focus on Nampula Province. Through clinical trials and pilot studies conducted between 2020 and 2024, it was demonstrated that the monthly administration of SPAQ to children under five reduced the incidence of clinical malaria by up to 86%, proving to be a highly cost-effective strategy that is well accepted by local communities.
The presentation by Timóteo A. Sambo analyzes the impact of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprophylaxis (SMC) in Nampula, Mozambique, using routine data and a Controlled Interrupted Time Series (CITS) approach. Although Round 1 did not show a measurable effect, Round 2 demonstrated a statistically significant impact, attributed to operational improvements, greater coverage, and scale.
Watch the Recording Here
