AMPATH Ghana

Submitted by: Arielle Hernandez

CARE

Chronic Disease Management Program

• Cervical Cancer
  • CDM-Cervical Cancer Working Group focused on standardizing M&E activities
  • Follow up with previous screening training cohorts to begin supervision and training at various trainee locations

Pharmacy

• Discussion of strengthening medication supply chain ongoing, leveraging principles from the Revolving Fund Pharmacy model ongoing

Internal Medicine

• Several hospitalists and primary care faculty from NYU are preparing to visit Tamale in 2024 and 2025 to continue quality improvement, expand the Clinical Pathways program, clinical education work, and building up curriculum for new residents within the Department of Internal Medicine and across all missions

Infectious Diseases Molecular Diagnostic Lab

• 6 GermFree members visited Tamale to unlock lab, conduct trainings/ certifications, and address remaining electrical components
• UDS/TTH creating a committee and strategic plan to support governance and laboratory operations

 EDUCATION

 Dentistry

• Ongoing discussions with NYU College of Dentistry and UDS Dental School Dean to collaborate on dentistry education/curriculum and skills laboratory

Surgery

• 3 NYULH faculty members specializing in trauma/critical Care, laparoscopic surgery, and pediatric surgery conducted a month-long rotation at TTH along with 2 NYULH surgery residents
• Faculty members engaged in clinical ward and operative teaching with surgery residents at TTH
• Faculty members worked with residents to begin to develop standardized care protocols around triaging trauma patients presenting to the A&E as well as postoperative hernia care

Medical Student Exchange

• One UDS student arrived to New York for clinical rotations, currently rotating in Internal Medicine, followed by Pediatrics

TEACH

• TSIM
  •  Discussions with Elevate Healthcare on long-term procurement of high-fidelity manikins
  •  Continuing to work on hypertensive emergencies, hemorrhagic shock, and nursing management of traumatic brain injury patients for simulation implementation at TTH
  • Planning for 2025 NYSIM course
• 2024 Pilot Projects
  • Teams are preparing for their visits to Tamale in October and early January for project implementation
  • Midway progress reports submitted
• 2025 Pilot Projects
  • Finalized partnering UDS/TTH faculty with NYU/Consortium faculty for TEACH Pilot Projects
  • Shared Instructions for Proposals with all faculty pairings
• ECHO
  • Ghana team met to discuss improvements to participation for ECHO programs, decided that every third session will be in person for a hybrid model, building upon past lectures with higher level of interactivity
  • Met with AMPATH Kenya/Project ECHO for collaboration support and mentoring
  • Matthew Koech from Moi visited Tamale, plan for incorporation of renal modules into ECHO program
• Human-Centered Design
  • Pilot Project groups continued their project development
• Monitoring & Evaluation
  • Continued Implementation of nursing and medicine client satisfaction survey with years 4-5 medical students
• OCCT
  • Off-campus clinical training survey was implemented with final year medical students

RESEARCH

Research Proposals (in development or submitted): 

• T-CHANGE NYU Seed Grant proposal planned submission to UDS IRB this month
• Akosua Karikari R01 on antimicrobial resistance, pending scientific review

Research Projects (Active, ongoing):

• Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Environmental Health Survey (CDEEHS) analytical plan under development

Research Deliverables:

• 3 abstracts accepted for D&I Conference
  • Sasha Hernandez: “Developing Strategic Interventions for Strengthening Family Planning Health in Northern Ghana: An Academic Partnership Needs Assessment”
  • Sasha Hernandez: “Refining a Cervical Cancer Prevention Program in Northern Ghana with Pragmatic Implementation Instruments: A Case Study”
  • Claudia Leung: “Research in the service of care: Optimizing chronic disease management in northern Ghana”
• 2 Abstracts accepted to 12th ICSD Conference
  • Claudia Leung: Leveraging Human-Centered Design (HCD) for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of HCD Implementation in Northern Ghana
  • Sasha Hernandez: Leveraging Mission-Driven Research to Sustain Innovative Care Models: A Case Study in Enhancing Maternal Healthcare in Northern Ghana through a Partnership Approach
• 2 abstracts accepted to NYU Langone Health Equity Symposium
  • Omni Cassidy: Unregulated marketing of skin lightening creams in Ghana: Preliminary results from the MACH Ghana Study
  • Amanda Klinger: Strengthening the healthcare workforce in Northern Ghana by establishing the Tamale Education and InnovAtion Center for Health Professionals (TEACH)
• Extreme Heat manuscript to be submitted to Nature Communications at the end of the month
• Rapid ethnographic assessment of type 2 diabetes manuscript under development

OTHER INFORMATION

Partnerships/Donations/Communications

• Partnerships
  • Preparing for IU/AMPATH Consortium visit to Tamale in October
  • Publicized Ghana program in ECHO e-newsletter
• Donations
  • Donation of medical supplies in development with Afya Foundation

• Communication
  • Proposals in development: Direct Relief

FLAIR (US Embassy Ghana)

• Pilot projects continue co-development and creation by faculty dyads
• Exchange visits beginning this month