Members of the Global Health Collaborative are active in projects around the world, from India to Sierra Leone, the Antarctic to Peru.
Global health projects
Our projects
Exploring Global Health Opportunities (EGHO)
Masanga
Masanga UK, Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (PUPSMD) and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust have been in partnership with Masanga Hospital in rural Sierra Leone since 2008.
During that time we have collectively raised £600,000 and helped to facilitate the rehabilitation of the hospital following the civil war. In the last seven years, over 60 PUPSMD staff and students have been placed at Masanga as part of a mutual benefit programme.
Our volunteers have gained experience in health issues of global importance, such as the Ebola crisis, and in return we have been able to provide skilled workers and funding for a number of educational projects .
Since 2014 we have received two Department for International Development grants to provide training in a number of areas, including infection prevention control and Ebola community awareness. To date we have trained over 500 community members and health care workers, using innovative educational tools and technology to improve resilience against further outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fever.
Masanga Hospital
A long-running association with Masanga Hospital in Sierra Leone means opportunities for medical students, global and remote healthcare postgraduate students and research.
At the same time we're making a difference to the lives of people living in this part of Africa.
Masanga HospitalEbola
We have previously opened a medical admissions unit at Masanga and this year we were able to fund an isolation facility for patients with dangerous pathogens. We are also due to complete a new accommodation facility for Masanga UK and PUPSMD volunteers in 2017.
Masanga leads Austin Hunt and Thomas Gale won a large Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) grant to develop the E-Buddi system, an interactive education tool created in response to the Ebola outbreak.
Dr Lucy Obolensky
When Dr Lucy Obolensky met a Kenyan woman who had been crushed by an elephant and effectively maimed for life, the idea for the Kenya Orthopaedic Project/MEAK was born with vital input from healthcare professionals from Torbay Hospital.
Kenya Orthopaedic Project (KOP)
In 2008 the World Health Organisation identified trauma as the world’s leading cause of death. In Kenya, many patients suffering trauma were not receiving effective treatment. The Kenya Orthopaedic Project was set up with the aim of improving trauma care in Kenya.
With a ratio of trained orthopaedic surgeons per head of population being 1:550,000 it is understandable that the trauma burden throughout Kenya and East Africa is high.
Even if numbers of trained surgeons reached the WHO recommendations of 1:100,000 the cost of the surgery and implants required would be prohibitive for the population who are most in need of orthopaedic care.
This has a catastrophic effect on families and societies as young, fit adults, often with young families, are unable to return to work to due to lengthy hospital stays and ongoing disability following a fracture.
KOP works collaboratively with Kenyan government hospitals to improve trauma care through side-by-side working, training and provision of equipment.
In 2012, leading KOP personnel published the results of their first five years’ work in the British Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (now the Bone and Joint Journal):
The Kenya Orthopaedic Project: surgical outcomes of a travelling multidisciplinary team.
For further information on the KOP please watch this video.
Exploring Global Health Opportunities (EGHO)
EGHO is an umbrella charity for a number of health and social programmes operating in Kenya, East Africa and locally-global projects in the UK.
As part of EGHO Dr Lucy Obolensky works with rural communities in northern Kenya to improve health outcomes. Lucy and the team work with the community elders and local clinic team to undertake needs assessments and health interventions.
Lucy presented some of their work at the Royal College of General Practitioners Global Health conference.
See the posters below.
Exploring Global Health Opportunities - posters
Global Recognition and Assessment of the Sick Patient and Initial Treatment (GRASPIT)
GRASPIT has been designed to give clinicians a structured systematic approach to the management of acutely ill deteriorating patients. It has been established in Kenya with the support of the National Resuscitation Council of Kenya.
Welcome to GRASPIT (Vimeo video)
Infection Prevention Control and Ebola Resilience Education (iCARE)
Linked to the Masanga Mentor Ebola Initiative, iCARE has seen joint working between telemedical experts at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, and healthcare professionals in the UK and Sierra Leone, to develop an app to support health workers in Sierra Leone with the fight against Ebola-related infection.