Clinical Research During Outbreaks (CREDO)

Clinical REsearch During Outbreaks (CREDO) is a training curriculum developed in 2017 by International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) and WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), to support investigators in Low- and Middle- Income countries (LMICs) to generate clinical evidence during infectious disease outbreaks. The 2017 curriculum is accredited by the African Academy of Sciences and intended learning outcomes have been mapped to the WHO TDR Core Competencies Framework. The core competencies are- Scientific thinking, Ethics, Quality & Risk management, Research Operations, Study & Site(s) management.

Intended Audience

The CREDO training is intended for clinical researchers and key members of multidisciplinary clinical research teams (clinicians, nurses, data managers).

How CREDO helps

The CREDO training will provide trainees with a set of skills to lead the research response in an outbreak and as such strengthen the national capacities of LMICs to generate clinical evidence during outbreaks and facilitate networking and thesharing of resources, and thus improve national response to disease outbreaks.

The curriculum covers the full spectrum of activities that generate clinical evidence from gathering good quality descriptive clinical data right through toclinical trials of experimental therapeutic interventions with a focus on outbreak diseases.

Overall objectives of CREDO

• Describe the steps in the planning and implementation of a clinical research study
• Explain how an outbreak setting might influence the approach to these steps
• Rapidly develop a research plan for an observational study or a clinical trial for a disease of epidemic potential.

CREDO curriculum

The curriculum consists of 10 modules which are online and self-paced along with workshop sessions. The curriculum contains theory and task-based competencies. Some of the key modules are:

• Clinical research methods for epidemic infections
• Research planning and protocol development
• Management and sharing of clinical research data and outputs

The final workshop and simulation exercise enables participants to put their knowledge into practice in an outbreak scenario. This will help reinforce the learning from e-modules.

We’re currently liaising with working groups to update the curriculum to the local context.