Corrie Walston

Dr. Catherine Staton, an associate professor of surgery and global health and an HYC affiliate faculty member, supervised research at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania that explored injuries, trauma, and access to care. She and her team found many reasons, such as a misunderstanding of doctors' orders, lack of transportation, or lack of childcare, that often kept patients from coming in for care following a traumatic injury. As a result, those patients tend to suffer more physically and financially from the lack of access to care. To respond to this unmet need, the Trauma Research Capacity Building in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, or TRECK, Program was created to train post-graduate students on how to improve care for trauma patients across sub-Sarharan Africa. This work was published in PLOS Global Public…

Thanks to a grant from the Thoracic Surgery Foundation (TSF), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, people in Western Kenya will soon have better access to cardiothoracic surgery.  Dr. Emily Farkas at Indiana University received the grant and together with Professor Barasa Otsyula, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at MRTH, will begin to procure supplies and equipment to set up this program, in collaboration with the work done at the Duke-MTRH Cardiology Center of Excellence. Duke established the Cardiology Center of Excellence at MTRH back in 2009, providing patients with diagnostic imaging, as well as specialized in- and out-patient care. The new surgery program will build off of the success of the Center of Excellence to provide improved cardiovascular care for the many people who call Western…

Dr. Gayani Tillekeratne, a 2014 Global Health Fellowship Pathway graduate and current Assistant Professor of Medicine in Infectious Disease, spends six month a year in Galle, Sri Lanka as a faculty lead for the Duke-Ruhuna Research Collaborative.  She recently returned from a trip there and offers insights into the deepening economic crisis affected the country. Click here to read the DGHI story.

Congratulations to the palliative care AMPATH Kenya team, led by Ken Cornetta of Indiana University which included Duke’s own Dr. Peter Kussin, for being named a Gold Winner by the John A. Hartford Foundation in their Tipping Point Challenge. The Challenge is a national competition whose aim is to spread ideas and solutions to address and improve health care delivery to those dealing with serious illnesses. The award acknowledges AMPATH’s role in the continuing growth of palliative care in Western Kenya through education, training, research and clinical care. Dr. Kussin will continue involvement in palliative care with the intensive care unit at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

On Friday, January 21, Drs. Jerry Bloomfield, Rebecca Lumsden and Titus N'geno presented Medicine Grand Rounds with their talk, "Impact in Global Cardiovascular Disease Research and Training: Duke's First 15 Years". You can watch Grand Rounds here:  https://warpwire.duke.edu/w/zYAGAA/ Congratulations to Drs. Bloomfield, Lumsden and N'geno on a fantastic grand rounds discussion.

Congratulations to GHP alumnus Dr. Titus Ngeno and his team for their recent publication in the Annals of Global Health, entitled “Feasibility of Cardiac Rehabilitation Models in Kenya”. Due to the global prevalence and high morbidity of cardiovascular disease, especially in Kenya, Dr. Ngeno and his team of clinician-researchers from both Duke and Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, set out to evaluate the feasibility of cardiac rehabilitation programs in Western Kenya. Cardiac rehabilitation is effective in improving cardiovascular disease symptoms and is adaptable to many settings. However, it is under-utilized. Dr. Ngeno and his team explored the ability of rehabilitation therapies to be deployed at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Kenya, as well as remotely by patients who live far away. Members of the team from Moi…