Cork – Moshi Partnership Update:
A team of five from INFANT: The Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research and Cork University Maternity Hospital’s (CUMH) and Cork University Hospital’s (CUH) Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, travelled to Moshi, Tanzania on February 24th 2019 to spend a week of partnership building with Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI) and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC).
The team comprised of:
- A Software Developer who had collaborated with colleagues from Moshi on building a web-based version of the KCMC Birth Registry
- A Programme Manager to support the Development of a large joint Funding Application
- An Obstetrician to engage with Obstetrics Colleagues on clinical research and practice and accompany obstetrics colleagues on the maternity wards at KCMC
- A Paediatric Nurse Manager from CUH to engage with paediatric nursing colleagues at KCMC on basic life support training and resuscitation.
- A Consultant Paediatrician from CUH, and INFANT paediatric research lead, to engage on paediatric research collaboration and accompany paediatric colleagues on the paediatric wards at KCMC.
The Esther Grant covered the travel cost of the Software Engineer from UCC to pilot and refine the web-based KCMC Birth Registry and the Paediatrician from INFANT and UCC who led the team from Cork and was involved in each collaborative initiative during the week. The rest of the team’s travel costs were covered by other funding streams. The team from Cork engaged with a large number of research and clinical colleagues from KCRI and KCMC Doctors and Nursing staff in the areas of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Paediatric, and IT support. It proved to be a very important and productive week in terms of progressing collaborative projects, particularly in the areas of:
- Enhancing the (now web-based) KCMC Birth Registry so that the use of data can be optimised for planning and decision making. This involved training on the new web-based system with data entry staff; piloting the
enhanced birth registry regarding data collection and entry with staff and mothers of newborn babies at KCMC, and continued refinement of the birth registry variables. - Building infrastructure and capacity to enhance newborn care. This included presentations and locally led training on newly acquired Bubble CPAP equipment to help restore normal breathing in infants; training on thermoregulation in the newborn; Kangaroo care; training and experience sharing on Neonatal Basic Life Support; resuscitation; treatment and outcomes for hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and sepsis; newborn feeding and NG tube placement. Clinicians from the visiting team accompanied and observed on maternity wards to better understand, first hand, issues encountered.
- Collaboration on joint proposal development: a funding proposal Expression of Interest was drafted for a large international funding agency call pertaining to innovation
in maternal and child health in low and middle income countries. - Collaboration on joint supervision of a PhD student who is focussed on Kangaroo care for newborns. The PhD student is registered and academically supervised at University College Cork, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, and clinically based and supervised at KCMC.
- Collaboration on undergraduate medical student placements.
Plans were made for a return visit colleagues from Moshi to visit INFANT at UCC and CUH/CUMH later in 2019 to further strengthen the partnership and advance projects outlined above.
