Lessons learned from an LSHTM-Ghana Health Service collaboration conducting complex evaluations of maternal, neonatal and child health interventions in low resource settings
Celebrating a 20-year research collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Kintampo Health Research Institute, Ghana.
There remains a significant gap in access to universal health care for mothers, babies and children in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in high rates of avoidable mortality and morbidity. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends integrated community-based programmes as essential to address this gap. The Kintampo Health Research Centre, set up as part of a collaboration with the LSHTM, is an award-winning Ghana Health Service research institute in central Ghana with a significant footprint in maternal, neonatal child health (MNCH) research. Between 1995 and 2015 the site hosted the world’s largest research surveillance site, enrolling and following approximately 200,000 women and their infants monthly, providing the scaffold for a range of policy-influencing community-based randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, and secondary analyses of MNCH programmes. The Ghana vitamin A studies alone have provided a significant proportion of the entire evidence base shaping current global policy on vitamin A supplementation.
We invite you to join us this evening to hear from lead researchers on both sides of the collaboration, from WHO and LSHTM colleagues, and the Director of the KHRC to discuss practical lessons learned in conducting complex evaluations of MNCH programmes on a significant scale. Talks will be of general relevance to global health researchers as well as those with a particular interest in programme evaluation or MNCH.
This event also launches a journal mini-series on the same topics.
A Reception will be held in LG6 and LG7. All welcome!
- Agenda
- Welcome, LSHTM Centre for Evaluation.
- History and Highlights of the LSHTM-KHRC Collaboration in MNCHHistory and highlights of the collaboration.
- Introduction to the Discover Public Health Journal series.
- Series highlights: Doing complex MNCH evaluations at scale – pitfalls, lessons and future directions.
- Community engagement
- Advancing qualitative methodologies through long term collaborations - is transcription really necessary
- Quantitative research in MNCH trials
- Determining cause of death from Verbal Autopsies: what can we learn from a 20-year research collaboration in Central Ghana?
- Discussant Perspectives - Reflecting on MNCH research and the KHRC-LSHTM collaboration.
- Close
Speakers
Professor Betty Kirkwood, LSHTM
Betty Kirkwood is a Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the LSHTM, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a fellow (by distinction) of the UK Faculty of Public Health. Originally with a statistics background, her research over the last 40 years has been driven by a desire to improve the health of mothers and young children in low and middle-income countries, and to increase access to known effective interventions. Her major contributions span research and global policy in maternal, neonatal and child health and development (MNCH), evaluation methodology, including randomized controlled trials of complex public health interventions and statistics – notably as author of the highly regarded textbook “Essential Medical Statistics” which she originally wrote in 1988. Betty is a co-guest editor of the 2024 Discover Public Health mini-series on lessons learned in conducting complex evaluations of MNCH programmes, which is a companion to this event. In 2017, she received the George Macdonald medal in recognition of outstanding research leading to improvement of health in the tropics.
Professor Alex Manu, LSHTM
Dr Shay Soremekun, LSHTM
Professor Sam Newton
Prof. Sam Newton is a Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. He completed his medical education at KNUST in 1993 and joined the Kintampo Health Research Centre in June 1996 as a clinician. In 2000 he was awarded a fellowship by the Nestle Foundation to undertake an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London and completed in 2001 and later completed a PhD in Epidemiology at the same school completing in 2007. He has carried out numerous field trials in malaria, iron and vitamin A as well as vaccine trials mainly in the area of polio, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b. He also has an interest in issues on Maternal and Child Health and has been involved in a number of field trials in that area. He joined KNUST in 2012 and is a Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health.
Dr Guus ten Asbroek
Dr Guus ten Asbroek, is a principal educator at Amsterdam University Medical Center focusing on global health and internationalization in the curriculums of medicine and medical informatics. As senior fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, he is responsible for all the teaching and training activities of AIGHD both at University of Amsterdam as well as the Vrije Universiteit.
Professor Zelee Hill
Zelee is a mixed method researcher at University College London with a focus on formative research and process evaluations. Zelee's research spans several areas of maternal, child and neonatal health including improving the performance of community health workers, quality improvement, community newborn care, and early child development.
Dr Charlotte Tawiah
Charlotte has worked at the Kintampo Health Research Centre for over 20 years and has experience in community research and communication as well as maternal neonatal and child health (MNCH). Through her experience, Charlotte has over the years worked with women and children as well as community members in rural Ghana. She has also worked on several studies using qualitative research methods.
Dr Lisa Hurt
Lisa is a reader in maternal and child health epidemiology in the Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University School of Medicine. She trained in epidemiology at LSHTM, and worked at KHRC as the ObaapaVitA trial director in 2004-2006.
Dr Caitlin Shannon
Caitlin is Director of Research at CARE, leading multi-disciplinary research practice, globally. Previously, she was Research Director for EngenderHealth, faculty at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a researcher at the Population Council. Her research has been featured in the Lancet, BMJ Global Health, and PLoS Medicine.
Dr Seeba Amenga-Etego
I am a founding member of the Kintampo Health Research Centre in Ghana and the immediate past head of the data science department. With a passion for building skilled teams, I focus on enhancing international collaborations and developing robust data management systems. I enjoy mentoring staff and setting up efficient operational policies. Outside work, I am a dedicated Arsenal FC fan and an organizer of local football teams.
Dr Sammy Danso
Sammy Danso is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Sunderland and an Honorary Academic Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to his current role, Sammy played a key role in collection and management of Verbal Autopsy(VA) data collected as part of the 20 years of research collaboration in Ghana. He subsequently did his PhD developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to automatically predict cause of death from the VA data. His PhD was one of earlier works that explored application of AI to VA, particularly focusing the open history part of the VA report. Sammy is the 2023 recipient of a William H Gates Snr Fellowship, in recognition of the wider applications of his AI research.
Professor Lucy Platt, LSHTM
Discussants
Professor Kwaku Poku Asante
Professor Kwaku Poku Asante is a public health physician and the Director Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC). KHRC is a Ghana Health Service institution and a leading centre for health research in the Ghana and the African region. With more than 20 years of experience in the field, Prof Asante has made significant contributions to public health research, particularly in Ghana and various other countries. Recognized for his expertise, Prof Asante mentors’ students in their research endeavours over the years and has an impressive publication record with over 100 scholarly articles to his name. He has international and domestic affiliations and memberships with several research institutions such as the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, WHO’s Product Development Advisory Group, International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, West African College of Physicians, National Malaria Elimination Program Ghana, Ghana Medical Association among others. Prof Asante is the current Chair of the African Chapter, International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE).
Professor Joanna Schellenberg, LSHTM
Joanna Schellenberg is Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her main research interest is the development and evaluation of public health interventions for newborn, infant and child survival in low and middle income countries, including evaluation of equity as well as effectiveness.
Professor Karen Edmond
Karen is currently Scientist in the newborn health unit at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Karen is a paediatrician from the UK and Australia with a PhD in epidemiology from LSHTM and dual specialisation in paediatrics and public health medicine. Through the last 20 years Karen’s work has ranged from clinical ‘on the ground’ paediatrics in hospitals in deprived and remote settings, clinical trials (including at Kintampo Health Research Centre in Ghana), data linkage and analysis of large data sets, senior advisory roles to national governments, WHO, Unicef, and the World Bank, clinical practice guideline development, evaluation, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis. Karen has a special interest in the evaluation of programs and interventions to improve neonatal nutritional and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Karen has most recently worked in Afghanistan for 2 years as UNICEF Chief of Health and comes to WHO from King’s College London where she was Professor of Child Health.
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- Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available.
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