Surgical Infection Education Event Held in India Draws Large Audience
Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) attended recent meeting that looked at results from the FALCON and CHEETAH trials
The meeting that took place on the 12th April at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana managed to draw a large audience of RMPs who are usually the first point of contact for the patients in India, especially in rural areas. The main aims of the meeting were:
- To appraise the RMPs about the surgical wound care of the patients post-discharge from the hospital
- To inform the RMPs of the early signs of Surgical Site Infection (SSI) and its management
- To understand the challenges faced by the RMPs in managing surgical wound care and surgical site infection in their practices
Following the presentations that took place, the event team were keen to find out what challenges were faced by RMPs in relation to the provision of surgical wound care, particularly regarding the management of SSIs. Following on from initial discussions that took place in the meeting, the team will be following-up with attendees over the coming weeks to gather further information.
In relation to the CEI programme in India, Atul Suroy (India Hub Manager) was quoted as saying 'With CEI, we aim to empower the existing workforce with evidence-based practices generated through GLOBALSurg collaborative studies to build capacity in the states of India."
You can find out more on the CHEETAH trial by clicking here. Further information on FALCON can be accessed by clicking here.
You can also visit the India national page by clicking here and Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) in India info slides by clicking here.
Overview of the Rwanda Hub National Steering Committee
Rwanda Spoke groups attend national CEI meeting in Kigali
The aim of the meeting that took place on the 20th April was to involve the community in clinical trial development, in addition to strengthening Community Engagement & Involvement (CEI) structure in Rwanda. The meeting gave members the opportunity to collectively meet face to face for the first time since the inception of the hub. In Rwanda each spoke group consists of roughly 6 - 8 members with 2 co-chairs (inclusive) consisting of a member of the hub team and member of the community.
During the meeting the committee were able to provide valuable input into the SWANN, PROTECTSurg and DRAGON national trials. Members were also given the opportunity to comment on the provision of post-operative care provided by community healthcare workers through the PIGEON project.
The meeting also enabled members to elect the National CEI Group that will form part of an international committee of representatives from each partner country within the GSU unit.
You can view the official CEI brochure for Rwanda (in Kinyarwanda) by clicking here.
You can also visit the Rwanda Hub page by clicking here or CEI page by clicking here.
GSU India Prioritisation Event - an overview of CEI training in Ludhiana
GSU Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) training and consultation session at CMC Ludhiana, India
The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery (GSU) recently held its first international prioritisation event since the beginning of the pandemic in India, with various meetings taking place in New Delhi, Ludhiana and Kolkata.
Our first overview of the activities that took place focuses on the CEI training session and public consultation at Christian Medical College Ludhiana, India on 29th September 2022.
The training was attended by surgeons, medical students and community health workers with the aim of teaching the fundamentals of CEI and its implementation in research. CEI is a way of collaboratively working with communities who are most likely affected by research outcomes. This includes getting the perspectives of patient, carers and community leaders about the acceptability of a study and strategies to implementing and disseminating findings of completed research.
Following the training, patients and carers joined the group for a consultation on the acceptability of TIGER- a proposed trial that aims to increase access to inguinal hernia surgeries among patients in low and middle-income countries. GSU had done initial work with patients in Ghana but wanted to find out TIGER’s acceptability in the Punjab region.
CEI is an important priority of the Unit and is integrated in all stages of the research it leads. On the 27th of September, leads from GSU Hubs attended a meeting in New Delhi to discuss, among other things, future directions for CEI including a community co-developed patient survey on surgical site infections.