KATH to use research to aid policy
Professor Ohene Adjei, Chief Executive of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), has vowed to ensure that research findings in the hospital are put to efficient and productive use.
He said they would do everything to ensure that clinical and non-clinical research findings go to support policy and care of patients.
He said the worrying situation where such findings were largely left unused must change.
Prof Ohene Adjei said this at the graduation ceremony of the 2011/2012 batch of students who took the Diploma in Project Design and Management (DPDM) Programme at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) held at KATH.
The long distance education programme, which started in 2003, has to date produced 86 graduates from various health disciplines of the hospital.
It has been designed to enhance KATH’s research profile by supporting and equipping residents and specialists with research skills that are critical for their fellowship and professional examination.
The DPDM, a joint project of the LSTM, KATH and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) School of Medical Science, is open to health professionals across the country and meant to promote quality care and prompt referral system.
The total number of candidates enrolled stands at 227 and it is said to be over-subscribed.
Prof Ohene Adjei said Management would create and nurture an enduring research culture at the facility to help deliver one of its key mandates – clinical research.
He encouraged the latest batch of 11 graduates, whose year-long research design covered Breastfeeding, Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and Blood Transfusion among other things, to work hard to push forward the hospital’s research agenda.
The Chief Executive complained that they were struggling with funding to sustain the programme and asked potential candidates to accept to pay part of the course fees.
They would, however, provide money from their research budget to support projects which would inform policy and patient care.
Dr Daniel Ansong, Senior Lecturer of KNUST and Co-ordinator of the programme, said the DPDM had been extended to the 37 Military Hospital and Zimbabwe with Ghana providing the facilitation.
Source: GNA