Posted 28/11/23. Medical internship is a key period for doctors\u2019 individual career planning and also a transition period for the broader labour market. Daniel Mbuthia and colleagues highlighted how experience during internship shaped medical doctors\u2019 career intentions in Kenya and Uganda, and emphasized the importance of job availability and context in influencing doctors\u2019 career choices.
Posted 22/11/2023. Routine surveys are used to understand the training quality and experiences of junior doctors but there are lack of tools designed to evaluate the training experiences of interns in LMICs where working conditions and resource constraints are challenging. Yingxi Zhao and colleagues described their process developing and validating a \u201cmedical internship experience scale\u201d.
Posted 21/11/2023. Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of preventable and treatable diseases common in Myanmar, primarily affecting marginalized rural communities. Myo Swe and colleagues provide an overview of reported NTDs in Myanmar over 100 years, indicating gaps in knowledge about certain diseases to inform future research directions related to NTDs in Myanmar.
Posted 15/11/2023. Medical interns are an important workforce providing first-line healthcare services in hospitals. Yingxi Zhao and colleagues provided an overview of doctors\u2019 internship experience in Kenya and Uganda, and highlighted challenges experienced by interns spanning from burnout, stress, challenging working environment, inadequate support and poor quality of supervision.
Posted 10/22/2023. Sean Cavany and colleagues publish a new perspective in Nature Communications that describes the possible mechanisms by which substandard and falsified antimicrobials could affect antimicrobial resistance and suggests ways to improve our understanding of this relationship. The article arose from the work of the FORESFA project, funded by a Wellcome Collaborative Award.
Posted 07/11/2023. As COVID spread globally support for LMIC focused on skilled, technologically enabled ICU care. This ignored fundamental weaknesses in health systems and the need for basic, effective care to save lives in all clinical settings. Whole of system vigilance and response requires reorientation of priorities and effective change management, by Mike English.
Posted 30/08/2023. Alternative Design Trials (ADTs) and Adaptive Platform Trials (APTs) have enabled efficient large-scale testing of biomedical interventions during recent Public Health Emergencies (PHEs). Alun Davies and colleagues aimed to rapidly review evidence on engagement and informed consent for ADTs and APTs during PHE to consider what (if any) recommendations can inform practice.
Posted 30/08/2023. This study by Makoto Saito and colleagues analysing 213 severe malaria cases in pregnancy at SMRU, MORU and OUCRU showed vital organ dysfunction led to high maternal and fetal mortality. In contrast, severe anaemia or hyperparasitaemia alone did not. This marked difference may explain the variation of mortality reported in the literature. Early diagnosis and treatment of malaria and anaemia in antenatal care should be promoted.
Posted 25/08/2023. Mike English and colleagues outline in their Lancet Global Health Viewpoint the challenges of measuring quality of care and the challenging pathways from measurement to actual improvement in health service delivery. They argue in particular that collecting data for measuring quality is too often the main focus with little attention is paid to the complex work required to actually change health care practices.
Posted 25/08/2023. Dorothy Oluoch, Lisa Hinton and colleagues in a new Viewpoint explore the rich potential for patient narratives to complement typical epidemiological and health service evidence on the status of health systems in low-income countries. They explain that we have much to learn about the improvements needed to systems and where to intervene from patients\u2019 stories about their experiences of health care, and that doing this is key to developing person-centred care.
Posted 23/08/2023. Kenyan medical schools are now estimated to be training and graduating increasing numbers of doctors, however recent data suggested that only less than half of these trainees are being absorbed by the public sector. Yingxi Zhao and colleagues conducted a qualitative case study to understand how post-internship medical trainees are absorbed into the Kenyan public sector.
Posted 22/08/2023. Medical devices are a fundamental component of health systems, but how are these governed to ensure benefits are achieved and harms are minimised? Naima Nasir and collesgues explore governance arrangements for medical devices in African countries and proposes a conceptual framework for the exploration of governance realities across the health system.
Posted 26/07/2023. Critical illnesses cause several million deaths annually, many occurring in low-resource settings. Despite great efforts and investments, lower income countries faced constraints in upscaling critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rosanna Mazhar, Jacquie Oliwa and colleagues explore how Kenya\u2019s efforts to do so were operationalised, offering insights into some of the challenges faced.
Posted 21/06/2023. In this paper, Tamara Willows and colleagues share how COVID-19 helped reflect on our global health research practice during the POETIC study. We add to ongoing discussions about decolonisation of global health by sharing the steps we took to put into action our commitment to equity within global health.
Posted 20/06/2023. The SEBCOV study reveals captivating insights into the Malaysian experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a nationwide Movement Control Order and a race to administer vaccines, Malaysians faced unprecedented challenges. Phaik Kin Cheah, Phaik Yeong Cheah and colleagues highlight the coping strategies, economic impacts, lifestyle changes, and evolving perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Posted 15/03/2023. In this systematic review, Abdulazeez Imam and colleagues summarise the evidence on missed nursing care in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC). Missed nursing care undermines nursing standards of care, and minimising this phenomenon is crucial to maintaining adequate patient safety and the quality of patient care. The concept remains understudied in LMIC settings which have 90% of the global nursing workforce shortages.
Posted 08/03/2023. Research ethics struggles in practice to adequately account for and respond to the agency and autonomy of people considered vulnerable in the research context. Jennifer Roest and colleagues discuss some of the core concepts and critiques emerging from the literature on women and children's agency in under-resourced settings.
Posted 03/03/2023. Nadia Tagoe, Sassy Molyneux and colleagues conducted a case study involving three health research capacity strengthening (HRCS) consortia to critically examine their decision-making processes, strategies for resolving management tensions and potential implications for consortia outcomes. The researchers propose an evidence-informed management framework for consortia leaders to use to support decision-making to optimise research capacity gains.
Posted 17/01/2023. PLOS Global Public Health features a blog on The Global Health Network Conference 2022 that took place at the University of Cape Town, South Africa from 24 \u2013 25 November 2022. The theme of the conference was Enabling Health Research in Every Healthcare Setting and 10 Years of addressing inequity in where research happens, who leads and who benefits. There were almost 900 abstract submissions and researchers, clinicians, practitioners, donors, and policymakers from across the world attended.
Posted 13/01/2023. Nancy Kagwanja and colleagues highlight the influence of social norms, structures, and actor power practices on responsiveness. Power practices were rooted in actors\u2019 lived experiences which included social and organizational power relationships, personal characteristics, and worldviews. Our findings emphasize the need to consider actors\u2019 lived experiences when intervening to strengthen responsiveness.
Posted 29/11/22. Makoto Saito and colleagues evaluated the fetal safety of antimalarials in the first trimester of pregnancy. Pregnant women who were treated with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in the first trimester had fewer fetal losses and congenital anomalies than quinine-treated women. Updated WHO guidelines recommend ACT, particularly artemether-lumefantrine, for all trimesters.
Posted 11/11/2022. In this study, Timothy Tuti and colleagues discuss the characteristics of a neonatal inpatient dataset from a network of Kenyan hospitals that allows for exploration of trends in performance and could support better impact evaluation, exploration of links between health system inputs and outcomes, and scrutiny of variation in quality of hospital care.
Posted 09/11/2022. Abdul Imam and colleagues studied the effect on the quality of patient care of prospectively adding extra nursing staff to newborn units in a resource constrained LMIC setting in Kenya and described the relationship between staffing and quality of care.
Posted 31/08/2022. Substandard and falsified anti-infectives used in human and animals are common, especially in Low- and Middle-Income countries, leading to poor clinical outcomes, adverse drug reactions, economic losses, mistrust in health systems and potentially leading to AMR emergence and spread. One Health research is needed to assess their impact on AMR, by Celine Caillet and colleagues.
Posted 05/08/2022. During a rapidly unfolding catastrophic pandemic, research is most needed to inform on nature, containment and prevention of the pandemic. Ethics review and regulatory authorities are important gatekeepers for research, and can facilitate scientifically rigorous and ethically sound relevant research. Alex Hinga, Dorcas Kamuya and colleagues examined how research review was undertaken during COVID19 in one of the review systems in Kenya, factors that enabled and/or hindered accelerated review including the political landscape, and make some recommendations for review systems in LMICs.
Posted 03/08/2022. Naomi Muinga and colleagues report on a process of implementing a co-designed, paper-based newborn monitoring chart in a network of hospitals in Kenya. While the chart was well-received, challenges with full uptake persist and offer opportunities to strengthen the process as well as future implementations.
Posted 22/07/2022. In recognition of emergent data on what the barriers and enablers are to long-term, sustainable capabilities to run studies, The Global Health Network and EDCTP developed the \u2018EDCTP Knowledge Hub\u2019: a set of online, open access, cross-cutting tools and resources to support the planning, writing and delivery of high-quality health research studies, available to research staff wherever they are in the world, especially those in low-resource settings. By Samuel Driver and colleagues
Posted 13/07/2022. Many of the antibiotics used in animal farms in Southeast Asia are critically important for humans. The scarcity of standardised antibiotic and livestock quantification methods limits existing literature. Ease of access to poorly regulate antibiotics, inaccessible quality animal healthcare, and insufficient preventive services likely drive inappropriate antibiotic use, by Aronrag Meeyai and colleagues.
Posted 24/05/2022. Drug-resistant malaria is now a critical public health emergency on a global scale. The artemisinin resistance confirmed recently in Rwanda and Uganda is likely just the \u2018tip of the spear\u2019, with its spread likely to soon occur widely across endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Philippe Guerin and colleagues make five feasible recommendations, based on learnings from the COVID-19 experience on collecting, sharing and disseminating these critical data efficiently.
Posted 17/05/2022. In this study, leveraging a Kenyan Clinical Information Network, Timothy Tuti, Mike English and colleagues set out to evaluate at the clinical team level, if and how a comprehensive healthcare-specific feedback theory used to design and implement pharmacists-championed feedback strategies could help improve medication prescribing accuracy during inpatient neonatal care.
Posted 11/05/2022. Yingxi Zhao and colleagues used data from a national health facility assessment to understand the capacity of Kenya internship hospital to provide internship training for medical doctors. They highlight the major gaps in staffing, equipment and service availability in those hospitals and call for more stringent and regular review and re-accreditation of internship hospitals to provide appropriate and well-resourced training.
Posted 25/03/2022. Alun Davies and colleagues used Participatory Video (PV) to explore how engagement with researchers influenced Kenyan school students\u2019 perceptions of research and aspirations. PV highlighted the complex context in which engagement is situated where students\u2019 time and attention is competed for against curricular, extracurricular, and social-cultural factors. We emphasise the importance of ensuring that engagement benefits students.
Posted 23/03/2022. In this review, Piero Olliaro and colleague Els Torreele analyse the successes and failures with coronavirus disease 2019 and Ebola virus disease in shaping health systems and research for infectious disease epidemics. They highlight that epidemic preparedness means also tackling a series of ongoing outbreaks and make the case for a coordinated, public health-driven, portfolio approach.
Posted 22/02/2022. In many sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya, the use of mortality and morbidity audits in maternal and perinatal/neonatal care as an avenue for learning and improving care delivery is sub-optimal due to structural, organizational, and human barriers. In this exploratory qualitative study, Joyline Jepkosgei and colleagues examined process-related factors that generally influence M&M audits including health workers\u2019 interactions and their experiences, institutional cultures, and broader health system contextual influences, which remain inadequately explored.
Posted 19/01/2022. Rita Njeru, Sassy Molyneux and colleagues examine the role of community health workers in supporting post-discharge recovery in young undernourished children. The authors argue that a targeted and multi-pronged approach initiated before or on discharge is needed, supported by clear guidance and training. The ways in which any new tasks or personnel are incorporated into hospital and broader health system hierarchies and systems need careful planning and tracking.
Posted 16/11/2021. In response to the Zika epidemic the Research Preparedness Network (REDe) engaged local health research communities to enhance long-term research capacity building. This publication is based on a call to fund research training workshops in Brazil and captures the process and impact of this approach. REDe also developed an implementation toolkit to foster similar initiatives and ultimately contribute to local ownership in global health.
Posted 12/11/2021. Global antibiotic consumption rates increased by 46 percent in the last two decades, according to the first study to provide longitudinal estimates of human consumption in 204 countries from 2000 to 2018. Annie Browne, Christiane Dolecek and colleagues used a novel approach that deployed statistical modelling techniques and incorporated multiple data sources, to help us address a number of public health challenges, from combating drug resistant infections to providing access to basic treatment
Posted 21/09/2021. The WHO's \u20185 moments\u2019 is the dominant paradigm for hand hygiene globally. While \u20185 moments' has many benefits and has had a significant clinical impact, it also has many weaknesses. Jacob McKnight and colleagues explore how this important paradigm can be improved to reflect the latest research in hand hygiene.
Posted 27/08/2021. Demographic and epidemiological changes have prompted thinking on the need to broaden the child health agenda to include care for paediatric complex and chronic conditions, however such expansion is threatened by workforce shortages. Yingxi Zhao and colleagues reviewed how task sharing could support expanded paediatrics services provision in LMICs, especially beyond acute infectious diseases and malnutrition that are widely and historically shifted.
Posted 06/08/2021. Preprints are increasingly being used to share non-peer-reviewed manuscripts to enable the rapid dissemination of research. In particular, they have become an important source of information for wider audiences keen to follow COVID-19 research developments, including news, social media and policymakers. This practice raises several challenges in publication ethics and integrity. Paul Newton and colleagues set out the need for good practice.
Posted 03/08/2021. Ribavirin is the only available Lassa fever treatment. The rationale for using ribavirin is based on one clinical study conducted in the early 1980s. However, reanalysis by Alex Salam and colleagues of previous unpublished data reveals that ribavirin may actually be harmful in some Lassa fever patients. An urgent reevaluation of ribavirin is therefore needed.
Posted 23/07/2021. Effective management and leadership are essential for everyday health system resilience, but health managers are often under-prepared and under-supported in these roles. Particular challenges have been observed in communication skills, emotional competence and supportive oversight. Jacinta Nzinga and colleagues share their learning from implementing a package of leadership development interventions in Kenya
Posted 20/07/2021. The ethical dilemmas faced by frontline staff conducting health research among \u2018vulnerable\u2019 populations are increasingly recognized. However, there is little documented on how staff might be supported in identifying and handling these dilemmas. Sassy Molyneux and colleagues share an approach and tools they developed in Kenya, centred on group reflections linked to a set of policy responses tailored to the context. They encourage further adaptation and evaluation of the approach
Posted 02/07/2021. Chemoprophylaxis against emerging and pandemic infections offer potential for prevention. Lakshmi Manoharan and colleagues evaluated significant design features of COVID-19 chemoprophylaxis trial registrations. The findings illustrate that the majority of trials were underpowered to detect clinically meaningful protection at epidemiologically informed attack rates. Future trials should be large enough to generate strong evidence and allow structured entry and exit of candidate agents. International trial coordination mechanisms and collaboration is required.
Posted 25/06/2021. In the ISARIC multicentre, cohort of 48\u2009902 patients, admitted to UK hospital with COVID-19 during the first pandemic wave (6 Feb-8 June 2020), bacterial infections were uncommon. 85% of patients were prescribed antibiotics, with substantial regional variations highlighting that antimicrobial stewardship should be prioritised and integrated into Covid19 care pathways, by Louise Sigfrid and colleagues.
Posted 18/06/2021. Grace Irimu and colleagues show that newborns account for 46% of admissions and 66% of deaths among children 0-13years in Kenyan hospitals. Most deaths are caused by preventable and treatable causes. The authors call for need to prioritize newborn care for Kenya to achieve the SDGs target.
Posted 09/06/2021. Chris Paton and colleagues describe how predictive human-computer interaction (HCI) modelling could be used to improve the safety and usability of digital health systems. We reviewed the history of predictive modelling in HCI and describe how modelling could be integrated with the human-centred design techniques used when developing digital health interventions.
Posted 28/04/2021. While Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) involving verbal autopsy provide essential data on deaths, births and other health-related events in LMICs where alternative sources are limited, Vicki Marsh and colleagues argue that current regulatory frameworks do not sufficiently recognise their nature as a form of non-traditional epidemiological research. Ethical challenges include risks of uncompensated burdens that alternative regulatory approaches may more successfully identify.
Posted 15/04/2021. Philippe Gu\u00e9rin co-authored a letter published in The Lancet drawing attention of the risk of pooling data from uncomplicated illness and more severe ill hospitalised patients in the development of COVID-19 treatment guidelines. Although SARS-CoV-2 is one virus, the COVID-19 disease has a complex and evolving physiopathology pathway and requires different therapeutic approaches depending of the stage of the disease. In low-resource settings, the prevention of hospital admission is the therapeutic priority.
Posted 13/04/2021. Self-regulated learning (SRL) remains unexplored for healthcare workers in low-income countries. Tim Tuti, Chris Paton and Niall Winters detail how SRL strategies impact on healthcare providers\u2019 learning gains when using digital learning platforms. We apply Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to questionnaire responses. We provide insights into the learner factors to consider when implementing technology-mediated learning.
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