Durham Learning Company Hits the Ground Running

Durham, NC (USA), December 2014 - Bull City Learning, a multimedia learning company, has announced being awarded a $660,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study the way that routine vaccinations are administered in rural African clinics. The initiative will help the global health community better understand how vaccine service delivery and mechanics, such as vaccine handling and cultural dynamics, impact overall immunization participation. It will also help to identify potential process and technology improvements.

 "We're excited to assist the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in this important mission," said Bull City Learning Co-Founder Nathan Pienkowski, PhD. "This initiative is designed to find meaningful ways to improve the administration of vaccines in rural settings.  It's an exciting opportunity to help children and improve overall immunization rates in the long term." 

During this eleven-month project, Bull City Learning will use ethnographic approaches to study immunization and primary care practices at six clinics in rural Uganda using video, photography, and live observation.  These artifacts will then be analyzed by a panel of experts in the areas of global health, general medical practice, process engineering, ethnography, and industrial design. The panel's observations and suggestions for improvements will be compiled in a formal report for the Gates Foundation.

In addition to supporting the foundation, Bull City Learning creates high-impact learning solutions for clients in a range of industries. Bull City Learning is currently assisting UNICEF and WHO with assessments of the potential of distance learning in global health training.