Quality Medicine Use for Children in Uganda (ChildMed)

Project summary

The overall objective is to contribute to improving the quality of medicine use for children in Uganda through multi-disciplinary research and to build capacity by research training. The research plan was developed jointly by Ugandan and Danish participants during a workshop in Kampala. We hypothesise that appropriate medicinal treatment depends on four key dimensions: coherency of policies relevant to children’s medicine use; accurate diagnostic procedures; availability and adequate use of appropriate medicines; effective communication of perceptions and knowledge. These dimensions are explored through case studies of four contrasting medication scenarios: Respiratory diseases, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS and worms (schistosomiasis). The project activities fall into 3 phases: Inception phase; operational research; finalisation. Each phase ends with a workshop for relevant actors. Outputs comprise e.g. 4 Ugandan Masters degrees, 4 Ugandan PhD degrees, 2 completed postdocs, situational analyses, policy briefs, 23 scientific papers and a book. To support ownership, sustainability and implementation the findings are shared with Ugandan stakeholders at different levels: Politicians, policy makers, health care staff, NGOs and researchers and the researched population. Research dissemination will be addressed through conference presentations and publications in international journals. The project has an interactive website: http://childmed.ku.dk/

Outputs

Project Completion Report
ChildMed is the acronym for the project Quality Medicine Use for Children in Uganda. It lasted 01-01-2010 to 30-06-2015.

Overall objectives were to contribute with a scientific foundation to improve the quality of medicine use for children in Uganda and to build research capacity at individual and institutional level.

The project was multidisciplinary and cross-cultural. 3 beneficiaries were male and 7 female.

In the inception phase a situational analysis was carried out to explore basic information about medicines supply and prescription at district and central level and lay the foundation for the project’s substudies. The Project enrolled 4 PhD students, 4 Master’s students and 2 postdocs and they all conducted research that together aimed at exploring four contrasting medication scenarios as well as policies relevant for children’s medicine use. The scenarios were: Respiratory tract infection/asthma, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases (exemplified by schistosomiasis). In the substudies, focus has to a varying degree been on four dimensions: diagnosis, medicines themselves, medicine use and communication. Policy was a cross-cutting issue. Field work took place in Jinja District and in the Kampala area.

Outputs comprise 4 Ugandan Master’s theses, 4 PhD theses, 2 completed postdocs, 8 policy briefs, 29 articles for international scientific journals, 2 books, 3 national seminars/workshops for Ugandan stakeholders, local dissemination workshops, presentations to international and national audiences and mass media presentations. In addition 8 Danish students, financed by other sources, have carried out fieldwork in support of the project.

ChildMed’s organisational structure and management support has contributed considerably to its success.

The project completion is featured at Makerere University’s website with the heading ”Five-Year ChildMed Project Completes in Record Time with Record Achievements” http://chs.mak.ac.ug/content/five-year-childmed-project-completes-record-time-recordachievements.