Update on some of the on-going studies/ Research activities

The e-Health Facility Patient registration System:

MUCHAP in collaboration with Iganga District Health Department is implementing this system as a pilot to improving morbidity surveillance in the HDSS. Currently data of over 2,500 patients has been entered in the database with unique HDSS identifier which makes it possible to link patients' facility information to household characteristics. This information is so enriching to MUCHAP's quest to build a strong morbidity surveillance system which previously only relied to verbal autopsy cause of death data.

Health workers capturing medical records of a patient in Busowobi Health Facility

The Mobile Phone Surveys for NCD Risk Factors(MoP-NCD):

The overall goal of the Mobile Phone Surveys for NCD Risk Factors in Uganda (MoP-NCD) program is to define the health burden of NCD risk factors across the lifespan in Uganda through an innovative model of sustainable collaboration. The John Hopkins University (JHU) is utilizing its existing collaboration with MUCHAP/Iganga-Mayuge Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (IM-HDSS), Uganda - each with a great commitment to understanding the impact of NCDs, scientific expertise, and a history of collaborative work. Our model will focus on using US expertise to strengthen Ugandan institutions, promote a sustainable research enterprise focused on NCDs, and enable further research by proposing an intervention study two years upon completion of this work.

The Innovation is about use of telephone and mobile phone technology in surveys to collect population-level estimates of health and demographics. As the number of mobile phones approaches the global population level, opportunities exist to leverage mobile-health technologies to improve the efficiency, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness of data collection in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) by interviewing respondents over their own personal mobile phone.

A study nurse checking Blood Pressure of study participant during the home visits

The Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) Study:

ENAP provides a road map of strategic actions for ending preventable newborn mortality and stillbirth and contributing to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity.

This study collects information about pregnancies and child births, pregnancy outcomes such as live births, still births and miscarriages on women with child bearing age (15-49years) which will improve ways in which these outcomes and neonatal deaths are measured during house hold surveys as well as improving methods used to determine how many weeks a pregnant woman is and the baby�s weight at birth.

Like in the MOP-NCD study, this also is using electronic Tablets to collect data. It started in October, 2017 and is still ongoing and a number of 18,260 women are expected to participate in it. So far 2,000 women have been interviewed from 19 villages that is; Namadudu, Bulyampindhi, Ntafungirwa, Magada, Luyira, Kabayingire, Nawampendo, Buwaiswa, Nakisenyi, Mbale, Buwaya, Namadhi, Namakakale, Bubago, Nawanzu, Nawansinge, Kakombo, Isikiro and Kabila.

The INDEPTH member sites implementing the survey are; Iganga Mayuge HDSS in Uganda, Bandim in Guinea Bissau, Dabat in Ethiopia, Kitampo in Ghana and Bangladesh in Matlab.

ENAP study Field Assistant conducting a household interview