IHCoR-Africa is a collaboration between the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kenya, the Medical Research Council Unit at The Gambia (MRCG), and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK. Our main aim is to strengthen research and improve hypertension management in sub-Saharan Africa. IHCoR-Africa is funded by the NIHR.
IHCoR-Africa is co-led by Professor Pablo Perel at the LSHTM and Dr Anthony Etyang at KWTRP.
IHCoR-Africa’s research component consists of three linked work packages that are designed to produce a community-based care model for managing hypertension in rural settings. Within these work packages, we are working to understand the current practices, needs and care gaps; improve screening, diagnosis, and risk stratification; and develop and pilot a novel model for hypertension management.
The research component of IHCoR-Africa consists of three linked work packages and we have assembled a multi-disciplinary hypertension research group to address the issues identified in the work packages.
The first work package, uses qualitative and health systems approaches to understand the experiences, needs, and practices across all levels of health care (individual, organisational, and health system) for hypertension management in rural Kenya and the Gambia.
In parallel with the first work package, our second work package is using quantitative and epidemiological tools to understand the prevalence of hypertension, and test new methods for diagnosing and risk stratifying people with hypertension in rural settings.
Finally, we will bring together the outputs of these two work packages to co-create a novel care package for managing hypertension in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
All research activities will take place in two rural settings, one each in the Gambia and Kenya.
As part of IHCoR-Africa we are offering a portfolio of training in collaboration with the Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL), the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), the Kenyan Cardiac Society (KCS), and Science for Africa Foundation. This training component aims to strengthening existing research capacity and capability in Kenya, the Gambia and across the African continent with a focus on hypertension. There are four main components:
- Online courses in research methods;
- Research career skills training;
- Advanced think tank seminars for hypertension leaders; and,
- Hypertension management training for frontline health care workers.
Training courses are running throughout the course of the project, so please sign up to the project newsletter to stay up to date on training opportunities offered by IHCoR-Africa. Alternatively, you can email us at IHCoR_Africa@lshtm.ac.uk to request more information.
View the NIHR IHCoR-AFRICA Online Training advert.
Community engagement is a key part of IHCoR-Africa and underpins our efforts from conception and delivery to dissemination of the project. In Kenya and the Gambia, we are undertaking extensive engagement efforts. The key objectives of this work are to:
- Create awareness among stakeholders and community members about IHCoR-Africa’s importance and rationale.
- Identify approaches which will enable stakeholders and community members to give their input into study design and implementation.
- Provide forums and channels for dissemination of project outputs and evidence locally, regionally, and internationally.
Publications, outputs and other dissemination activities will be added here as they are produced. Please check back for updates.
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