AfroImplement Newsletter
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The 'AfroImplement' initiative, funded by the European Union (EU),
aims to evaluate different methods of disseminating and implementing
health care research findings and thus promote the transfer of
research findings into clinical practice, leading to improved health
and use of resources in Southern African and EU settings.
Health gain from advances in medical science has been compromised by
a failure to transfer research evidence into clinical practice. This
problem is more acute in developing countries where the potential
health and economic gains from some simple, cheap and effective
interventions have been largely unrealised.
Relatively little attention has been paid to ensuring that the
findings of medical research are applied in routine clinical
practice. In developed countries growing pressure to contain costs
and improve quality of health care has led policy makers, medical
practitioners and other decision makers to explore ways in which the
behaviour of health care providers can be changed to improve health
and economic outcomes.
Implementation research is a recent innovation with specific
methodological problems and there are relatively few scientists
internationally with experience in this area: there is a need for
collaboration to share knowledge and skills. AfroImplement is an
international collaborative project which will promote rigorous
valuations of implementation strategies through collaboration
between Southern African and European researchers.
The initiative is co-ordinated by the Health Services Research Unit
at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom (Scientist in
charge Dr Jeremy Grimshaw) and the Medical Research Council in South
Africa (Scientist in charge Dr Merrick Zwarenstein). At present,
there are participants from four European countries and four
Southern African countries. They are keen to identify other
potential participants in the Southern African region.
The first AfroImplement Newsletter which gives an excellent overview
about the initiative including more then 40 references to relevant
reading material is now available via the World Wide Web (WWW):
http://www.healthlink.org.za/hlink/pubs/other/afroimp/index.htm
For those without access to the WWW we have placed a copy of the
newsletter in plain text format (ASCII, 48 kB) on the HealthNet
/SatelLife server. To request a copy send an e-mail message to:
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Following is an overview about the contents of the newsletter:
AFROIMPLEMENT - Newsletter No. 1
January 1997
AfroImplement: A European-Southern African collaboration focused on
putting research into health care practice in Africa
Contents
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Welcome message
AfroImplement Objectives
Objectives for phase 1
Objectives for phase 2
Report on the First Workshop
Program
Links with policy-makers and funders
Methodological grounding
Research protocol development
South African projects
South African / Zambian project
Tanzanian projects
Zimbabwe's projects
Zambian projects
Issues raised and decisions taken
Country coordinators
European contacts
Workshops II and II
Cochrane libraries
Workshop on systematic reviews
Liason with funders and policy makers
Nigerian travel problems
AfoImplement logo
Recreational activities
Views of participants
View from Zambia
View from Newcastle
Relationship with other projects
Relationship with CPP
Relationship with other INCO projects
South African MRC initiatives
South African Cochrane Centre
Trials support unit
Communications
AFRO-NETS
AfroImplement on the Internet
AfroImplement newsletter
Recommended reading
Contact details
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Dieter Neuvians MD
e-mail: neuvians@harare.iafrica.com
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