KHRC Strengthens Collaboration with MUST on a Maternal and Child Health Study
October 30, 2024 | News Feed | Reading time: 4 min
The Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC), represented by Dr. David Dosoo, a Deputy Chief Biomedical Scientist and Mr. Japhet Anim, a Senior Project Manager, has visited the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) from October 29 to 30, 2024, to oversee progress on an ongoing clinical study focused on improving maternal and child health in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
The clinical study titled, "An Evaluation of Electronic Pregnancy Registers and Mobile Applications as a Potential Tool for Promoting Antenatal Care and Monitoring Pregnancy Outcomes" (EVAPREAP), aims to use mobile technology to monitor health outcomes of pregnant women and their babies, to help address maternal and infant health issues across SSA.
The EVAPREAP study is one of the nine work packages of the “Advancing the Clinical Development of Placental Malaria Vaccines in the Context of Capacity Building and Use of Digital Health Technologies” (ADVANCE-VAC4PM HOME | ADVANCE VAC4PM) project, which is funded by the European Commission (EC) and sponsored by the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) in Germany.
As the lead institution for the EVAPREAP study, KHRC is leading efforts to evaluate how feasible and easy it is to use mobile phone applications to track the health of pregnant women. This study is being carried out in four facilities across Africa: Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) in Ghana, Fondation pour la Recherche Scientifique (FORS) in Benin, Groupe de Recherche Action en Santé (GRAS) in Burkina Faso, and the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Malawi.
The KHRC team’s visit to MUST was aimed to exchange ideas and provide technical support for the smooth implementation of the study. As part of the visit, the KHRC team interacted with Dr. Mwayiwawo Madanitsa, the principal investigator at MUST, and his research team. They also toured the Thyolo Hospital, the facility for the pilot of the pregnancy tracking mobile app, to discuss implementation, challenges and explore ways to accelerate the study's progress.
The ADVANCE-VAC4PM project focuses on placental malaria vaccine development and using digital health tools to improve maternal health outcomes. This collaboration highlights KHRC’s commitment to collaboratively address health challenges affecting pregnant women and children and improve healthcare delivery in Africa.
