SPRING is working to improve the measurement of anemia and micronutrient deficiencies through our work in two research groups:HEmoglobinMEasurement (HEME) and Biomarkers Reflecting Inflammation and Nutritional Determinants of Anemia (BRINDA).
The HEME working group is a collaboration led by SPRING and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The objective of HEME is to identify factors that contribute to the accuracy of and variation in hemoglobin measurement for assessment of anemia. The HEME working group consists of primary investigators that have collected hemoglobin data. The data contributed by these investigators is being pooled and analyzed to address the HEME research objective.
The BRINDA 2 Project is the second phase of the BRINDA 1 Project, which was formed in 2012 by the CDC, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. The BRINDA project aims to improve micronutrient assessment and identify risk factors for anemia. SPRING joined the BRINDA 2 Project, along with Emory University and the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group. Under this project, a collaborative group of researchers has published several articles and SPRING has drafted a brief that explains the important programmatic implications of these findings.