Here I am, closing week 4 in Dar es Salaam, and it seemed time to offer a new entry in "what is Gary doing in Tanzania?"
Much of this trip is 'Back to Bagamoyo.' In our last installment from the Bagamoyo Health District, my project was about developing an educational and clinical collaborative relationship between the District and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar. This trip continues that work, with the added wrinkle of putting together programs to actually carry out the purpose of the collaborative. Two programs are in the works.
The first is a series of inter-professional education days focused on maternal and child health. This involves getting students in the medical (OB/GYN and Pediatrics rotations), nursing, pharmacy, public health/environmental health and dentistry schools into the field to do clinical work together in small teams at the District Hospital. In this way, they will, hopefully, learn from one another about how each of their disciplines works together to care for the patients they see. In addition, the staff in Bagamoyo have the opportunity to also learn through their experiences as part of the team and have access to continuing education. Maternal and child health was chosen due to the high rate of maternal and neonatal mortality in Tanzania.
The second project in Bagamoyo is also focused on maternal and child health, but out in a rural health center. This project involves staff training, data collection and dissemination of treatment information using cellular technology, community engagement to help encourage women to access prenatal care early in their pregnancy, early identification of potential difficult pregnancies and births, and student clinical field work in the health center and dispensaries. The data collected will also interface with the medical information system being piloted in the District by the Ministry of Health, further adding to available data on population health status. The project will be piloted with one health center and then replicated in each of the health centers in the District. It is very exciting.
The initial focus is on maternal and child health, but in the future each of the programs will focus on other health issues that are important to the lives of Tanzanians.
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