The ultimate aim of all the Institute's research programs is to provide effective interventions which will lead to improvements in people's health and in the control and prevention of disease. The basis for achieving this aim is greater understanding of the relevant disease processes and the constraints to change. In part this understanding comes from knowledge of the external causative agents of disease and in part from examining the host factors involved, in particular behavioural, genetic, immunological and nutritional. Some of this work on host factors derives from the problem-based programs but, in addition, separate units of the Institute are devoted to the particular disciplines of medical anthropology and human genetics.

With respect to anthropology, all field staff working in Institute programs are expected to adopt an anthropological approach to their work; this means establishing a strong rapport with participating communities that is based on an understanding of their motivation and social organization; it means adopting an open attitude to their beliefs and customs; and it means asking open-ended questions about health-related behaviour. However, particular studies require more detailed information about social and behavioural factors and for this the expertise of the Institute's Medical Anthropology Unit is required. Detailed community studies of nutrition, growth, fertility, endocrine status, genetics, disease patterns and social organization have been undertaken by the unit, particularly in the fringe areas between the highlands and the lowlands, in Bundi, Gainj, Karimui, the Anga groups and the Hagahai. The unit has carried out nutritional studies in the Madang and Wosera areas and in other parts of Papua New Guinea in collaboration with members of various government departments. It has contributed to the Institute's studies on malaria, in particular on the local production and use of bednets. It has examined the disease-recognition and treatment-seeking behaviour of mothers. It took part in a survey of poverty in Papua New Guinea. Studies on behavioural constraints to family planning and to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, and the evaluation of methods of sexual health education have been undertaken, in both rural and urban areas. In the face of a potentially explosive epidemic of AIDS, studies on sexual and reproductive behaviours in a range of cultural groups throughout PNG were carried out by the unit; the findings of these studies were published as a monograph in the Institute's monograph series. Evaluation of peer education as a means of preventing HIV transmission and AIDS is now being undertaken in groups at high risk, such as youth, truckers, sailors and dockers, security guards, police and commercial sex workers.

The Molecular Genetics Unit originally concentrated on the human major histocompatibility complex (HLA) and genetic associations with a number of diseases, such as malaria, arthritis and asthma. The unit has now expanded into a fully equipped laboratory of molecular genetics. Its new emphasis is on molecular techniques for the diagnosis and characterization of a wide range of infections. These techniques are currently in use to study malaria, chlamydial infections in mothers and their newborn children, human papillomavirus infection, measles and typhoid. The unit has also contributed to many other studies of the Institute and has carried out its own extensive survey of human genetics in different parts of Papua New Guinea. Powerful new genetic techniques have created the field of bioarchaeology, which enables ancestral relationships between human groups to be determined; collaborative studies in this field are being conducted with colleagues in Australia and the United States.

The Computing and Statistics Unit maintains the function and proper use of the many microcomputers held by individual sections and staff members of the Institute and the network that allows communication between the various units and branches. The unit is responsible for regular back-up of computers and archiving of data. The statisticians assist all staff members and other colleagues in the planning, conduct and analysis of research projects. The staff of the unit also conduct their own research into the appropriate statistical handling of the various kinds of data generated by the Institute's scientific projects and contribute their own scientific input to particular studies where more innovative analysis is required.

The Entomology Unit is based in Madang with its own laboratories, offices, field equipment store and insectary. Its major activities have been directed to the mosquito vectors of malaria, filariasis and arbovirus infections. The abundance and distribution of vector species have been studied in the field. Infected and infective mosquitoes have been analyzed in the laboratory. Behavioural and genetic studies have been conducted in the field and laboratory. The unit provides a national resource for entomological reference, for studying the effect of insecticides and for the monitoring of vector control programs.

The Information and Communication Unit includes staff in the library, maintaining the collection of books and journals and the capacity to search the world literature through Medlars and other data bases; the publications section concerned with Institute publications such as reports, papers and the Monograph Series and maintaining the Institute's Publication List; the bibliographical and journal section responsible for the Bibliography of Medicine and Human Biology of Papua New Guinea and for editing the Papua New Guinea Medical Journal, the peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the Medical Society of Papua New Guinea and a highly respected international journal in tropical medicine; and the audio-visual section, equipped with dark-room and other facilities for research documentation, for providing illustrative material for lectures and publications and for conducting research using modern audio-visual technology.