JOSEPH SIEKA, MD, MMSc
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH IN THE OFFICE OF SPONSORED RESEARCH SERVICES, INSTRUCTOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Office Address: AM Dogliotti Medical School Campus, Catholic Junction, Monrovia
Biography
Dr. Sieka is a public health physician with strong interest in infectious disease research and the use of data for decision making at the various tiers of our health system. He is interested in training the next generation of clinicians, scientists and researchers, and data scientists. He has had mid-level managerial assignments as County Health Officer in River Gee County and Grand Bassa County, two political subdivisions in Liberia. During those assignments, Dr. Sieka was responsible for overseeing partially decentralized health systems. However, one of the major challenges was the use of the data collected for planning and decision making. He noticed a lack of the capacity at the sub-national level. In order to mitigate the challenge described above, Dr. Sieka joined a team of like-minded professionals at the University of Liberia’s flagship public health training institution to respond to the request for proposal to establish a data science hub at the College of Health Sciences. His main duty at the College of Health Sciences is Director of Research in the Office of Sponsored Research Services. In this position, he is responsible to work with other scientists, institutions such as the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Institute and thereby foster research collaboration with the University of Liberia. He is currently co-teaching Biostatistics and Epidemiology with colleagues at the College of Health Sciences and mentoring a cohort of public health students. My research interests include large-scale clinical trials on interventions for infectious diseases prevalent in Liberia.
QUALIFICATION
MD, University of Liberia, 2006
MMSc, Harvard University, 2019
CURRENT ENGAGEMENT
PHLT503 Biostatistics I
AEPI603 Fundamentals of Data Management
PUBLICATION
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Kobayashi M, Beer KD, Bjork A, Chatham-Stephens K, Cherry CC, Arzoaquoi S, Frank W, Kumeh O, Sieka J, Yeiah A, Painter JE. Community knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding Ebola virus disease—five counties, Liberia, September–October, 2014. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. 2015 Jul 10;64(26):714.
Research
I am currently part of a consortium conducting an epidemiology study on malaria transmission dynamics as a clinical associate investigator. The epidemiology study is a precursor to a full-fledged clinical trial on malaria transmission blocking vaccine from mosquitoes to humans. I have contributed to the protocol development and submission to the national IRB. During the COVID 19 outbreak in Liberia, I was part of the team of expert that drafted the National SOPs and treatment guidelines. The team of national experts also designed and rolled out the initial trainings for healthworkers.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Malaria
Clinical Trials
RESEARCH METHODS
Biostatistics
Trial Design