BIOTOPE - BIOmarkers TO diagnose PnEumonia
Childhood pneumonia remains the single biggest killer of children under 5 years of age across the world. To tackle this we have developed the BIOTOPE (BIOmarkers To diagnose PnEumonia) initiative. So far the project has identified ways to identify children most at risk of severe illness who needed hospital admission using AI approaches and proteins in the blood that could be used to help identify which children needed antibiotics.
Rheumatic Heart Disease
Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a condition affecting children and young adults. It most commonly occurs following streptococcal sore throat. Although once common in Ireland, it has now disappeared. However, in countries like Malawi it is still common, affecting 1 in 33 children. In this condition the heart valves become damaged leading to heart failure and death. The average age of death is 27 years. We have been developing and evaluating new models of care for this condition
NCD Clinic
The Non Communicable Disease Clinic in St Johns Hospital continues to grow and now has over 500 patients attending. This clinic focuses on conditions such as asthma, heart disease and diabetes and has shown significant improvements in the management of these conditions
Family Medicine & Family Pharmacy
In order to ensure the innovations we have developed can be dissemninated widely we are working with universities in Malawi to develop training programmes in family medicine and pharmacy to bring healthcare closer to rural and remote communities
Education
A major focus is on education in Ireland and Malawi focusing on exchange of knowledge and skills