Dr Bernard Kikaire (MBChB, MSc Epi, PhD) is a medical epidemiologist. He received his medical training from Makerere University, before joining the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London for an MSc in Epidemiology. Bernard, has just completed his PhD from Trinity College, in which he explored the effect of nutritional status and nutritional supplementation on clinical, nutritional and immunological outcomes of HIV infected adults initiating ART in Uganda.
Dr. Kikaire’s passion in the area of HIV care research. He has over 15 years of experience in HIV care research having worked as in several research positions at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Research Unit. He worked with the Development of AntiRetroviral Therapy for Africa (DART) study which was funded by the Medical Research Council, UK. This was ground breaking study in the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource limited settings such as Sub-Saharan Africa. He also worked on the Strategic Timing for Antiretroviral Therapy (START) study, and NIH funded study. This study led to the recommendation of test and treat strategy for HIV infection. He has also worked with several pharmaceutical HIV drug trials including Rilpivrine from Jansen and Jansen, and Pregabalin from Pfizer. Bernard also has experience in leading and managing cohorts, having managed the HIV Pre-ART Cohort at the MRC/UVRI HIV care clinic in Uganda. This was a cohort of HIV infected long term non-progressors, and slow progressors who were followed up longitudinally for over 10 years.
Bernard has vast experience in clinical trials conduct, management, and research ethics having been a member of the UVRI research and ethics Committee for three years. Bernard is a certified GCP trainer from South Africa.
Dr. Kikaire, has interest in Implementation research, which he picked while he worked with The Regional integration of Health Services in East Central Uganda (RHITES –EC), a USAID funded project. In this project, he worked as the advisor and coordinator for operations research. He as subsequently attended a six weeks online training in Implementation research organized by WHO-TDR, and looks forward to conducting several implementation research projects in the field of HIV care.
He also has vast experience as a leader, having been in several leadership positions while at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Research unit in Uganda.