Dr Alastair Van Heerden
Prof Alastair van Heerden is a research director in the HSRC's Human and Social Capabilities research division and leads the HSRC Sweetwaters Centre for Community-based Research. He holds a PhD in Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand (2013) where he also holds an honorary Associate Professor appointment within the Department of Clinical Medicine. Van Heerden specialises in community-based intervention trials, digital and mobile health, and information and communications technology for development (ICT4D).
Van Heerden has over 10 years' experience conducting clinical, behavioural and community-based research throughout East and Southern Africa, Nepal and Brazil. He has an interdisciplinary focus to his research, which combines interests in technology for development and public health. These interests informed his PhD, which focused on pervasive computing in heath; particularly, how to harness inexpensive mobile technology to support health research in low-resource settings. He has been responsible for the implementation of several multi-year grants including work funded by the NIH (1R01MH077553, 1R01HD055137, 1R01MH105534-01A1), Gates (OPP1134599) and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (RIA2018D-2498).
Central to these studies was his desire to find community-based solutions to the challenges of centralised primary health care. Most recently he has worked to better understand how the digital sensing of behaviour can be used to support health interventions among young women with post-natal depression (episodic audio and proximity beacons, OPP1189927), healthy adolescents in Brazil (accelerometry, GPS and screen time, FF.1920.1.61), depressed adolescents in South Africa and Uganda (behavioural activation-based serious games, 1710HQ001/VW1) and gestational diabetes in obese pregnant women (continuous glucose sensors and machine-learning models designed to support understanding of activities of daily living, ACC2018003).
Van Heerden is a National Research Foundation C2-rated researcher. He has published 61 scientific articles in local and international peer-reviewed academic journals, 8 research reports, and [2] book chapters. He has also presented more than 50 papers and posters at local and international conferences. He is part of the editorial advisory board for the Global Health & Infectious Disease section at Heliyon and an ad-hoc reviewer for the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Journal of the International Aids Society, and Social Science and Medicine.
MiTech Couple-Based Motivational Interviewing with Technology to Reduce Alcohol Consumption in HIV+ South African Couples
This study aims to adapt a couple-based motivational interviewing intervention to reduce alcohol use in HIV-affected South African couples and incorpo....
BetterInfo SA to improve understanding of the care journey of people living with HIV in South Africa and identify targeted areas for interventions that can improve overall outcomes.
This study aims to to improve understanding of the care journey of people living with HIV in South Africa and identify targeted areas for intervention....
Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Oral Islatravir Once-Monthly as Preexposure Prophylaxis in Cisgender Women at High Risk for HIV-1 Infection
Phase 3 development of the Islatravir (EFdA) monthly oral formulation. This study looks to test the efficacy and feasibility of monthly PrEP as a prev....
COVID 19 DO ART: Demonstration of community-based HIV treatment to implement and evaluate a comprehensive community-based antiretroviral therapy delivery model.
COVID 19 DO ART: Demonstration of community-based HIV treatment to implement and evaluate a comprehensive community-based antiretroviral therapy deliv....
A sequential, adaptive model of differentiated service delivery to reach persons living with HIV who are lost-tofollow- up or who have detectable viral load
This study will implement a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) design to facilitate evaluation of a stepped, adaptive approach to....
Co-designing Community-based ICTs Interventions to Enhance Maternal and Child Health in South Africa
The project aims to form a network with ambitious long-term goals that will advantage a variety of beneficiaries. Maternal and child health (MCH) is o....
Simunye STEPs - HIV prevention and care for couples in South Africa
The study aims to (i) Conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the efficacy of the dyadic intervention versus a standard of care conditio....
TB Triage+: Prospective, multicentre evaluation of the accuracy of CAD4TB and C-reactive protein assay as triage tests for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in presumptive adult TB patients
Tuberculosis (TB) is a poverty-related disease, which particularly affects vulnerable, hard-to-reach and underserved populations. Current intensified ....
Incentive Funding for Rated Researchers: Dr van Heerden A
Research output publications, oral and poster presentations and a variety of other research work of the grant holder in line with grant conditions.....
Preventing HIV Transmission by Recently-Infected Drug Users (TRIP)
HSRC will be responsible for implementing the two-months development study described in the TRIP 2 Development Study Protocol.....
CRS Lesotho Tracer Study: Supporting Primary School Transition
This project aims to support the evidence base for early childhood development interventions by evaluating in the who participated in the "Whose child....
Age Validation of the Early Learning and Development Standards for the Ministry of Education and Training in Lesotho
To conduct with scientific rigour an age validation of the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) for the Ministry of Education in Lesotho. ....
The impact of social media access on the socio-political views of adolescents in rural KwaZulu-Natal
This study aims create within HSD a team of researchers, connected to a network of collaborators, who are both competent in current research technique....
4 Children DREAMS preventing HIV/AIDS in adolescent girls
DREAMS is designed as a comprehensive package of social, economic and bio medical intervention to both reduce girls vulnerability to HIV and increase ....
Going to Scale: Project SIZE
SIZE is a large scale longitudinal study which aims to generate scientific and policy relevant knowledge about how South Africa\'s children are being ....
WIndows of Opprtunity: Pilot testing of the IFA mobile app to strengthen decision-making in provision of community-based health, nutrition and ECD services in South Africa
Pilot testing of the IFA mobile app to strengthen decision-making in provision of community-based health, nutrition and ECD services in South Africa....
mHealth Support for Amagugu Champions Study
This project is being contracted to provide consultation around and development of an electronic data collection system for research. This includes co....
mHealth Innovation for HIV-MNCH community Health Workers in South Africa
To manage project activities in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa over the 3 year intervention development grant in order to develop and test the accepti....
Home-based HIV Counselling and Testing and Facilitated Referral in Uganda and South Africa
PEPFAR supplement funds will provide an opportunity to pilot HBCT in KZN and evaluate HBCT uptake and systems for linkage to ART care, impact of ART a....
MP3 project-HIV treatment and prevention through home-based HIV counselling and testing and facilitated referral in KZN
This is a one year pilot study. Home-based counselling and testing (HBCT) will be evaluated in KZN as an intervention to massively increase knowledge ....