Our clinical research facilities are on the Site B Khayelitsha Community Health Centre premises in Khayelitsha township, 30km from Cape Town city centre, where we work in partnership with local government and NGOs. Khayelitsha residents experience high levels of unemployment and chronic ill-health.
The Clinical Research Platform facilitates the work of CIDRI-Africa principal investigators and co-investigators, supporting observational cohort studies, evaluation of novel diagnostics and clinical trials. The research remit includes HIV, TB, other HIV-related opportunistic infections, and the intersection of HIV with cardiovascular disease.
We have established strong working relationships with UCT’s Clinical Research Centre (CRC; based in the academic Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH)).
We have developed more sophisticated early sample processing capacity in Khayelitsha to enable stabilisation and initial processing (including freezing) of time-sensitive or delicate samples, such as those from intensive PK studies. There are several clinical research support staff (including a platform academic, clinical sites manager, radiographer, data systems manager and pharmacist) employed to facilitate the work of the Clinical Research Platform and investigator-led clinical research.