The Desmond Tutu TB Centre (www.sun.ac.za/tb) is an academic research centre of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences. It has its main offices on the Tygerberg Campus and satellite offices in various communities affected by TB and poor health.
It has as its mission the improvement of the health of vulnerable groups through influencing policy based on new knowledge created by research focusing on health, mainly TB and HIV. To achieve this, the Centre works closely with the Department of Health and the local communities. It provides training to academic and health services staff, builds capacity in the University and the Department of Health, provides service to communities and advocates for TB and health. Himself a former TB sufferer, Archbishop Desmond Tutu champions tuberculosis research and care. He is also the patron of the on-campus Tygerberg Children's Hospital.
DTTC News
WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE ORAP programme brings together researchers and health professionals
Medical researchers from universities and institutions across the country recently joined forces with health professionals from all nine provinces in an intensive and invigorating workshop at Erinvale in Somerset West.
The week-long workshop was organized by Stellenbosch University’s Desmond Tutu TB Centre (DTTC) as part of its four-year Operational Research Assistance Project (ORAP) in South Africa.
Research pairs consisting of a medical researcher and a health professional were teamed up to work on an operational research project. The project has to focus on a National TB priority area and be relevant to each team’s provincial TB programmes.
The April 2012 workshop was the beginning of an 18-month programme, during which the over 30 participants will keep in touch with each other to work on their projects and write up and disseminate the results.
The pairs are mentored by senior staff members at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre.
They also have two more training workshops during the programme, where they’ll learn about the development of ethically approved research protocols, data management and manuscript writing.
The aim is to get people who work in the field every day linked up with researchers. The programme is empowering as both sides stand to benefit so much from it. If people know the problems in their field of work in TB, they can find a way forward and come up with solutions,” said Don Enarson, former Director of Scientific Activities at the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, who is working with the DTTC on ORAP.
Participants were excited about the programme.
"The workshop has really opened my eyes. I'm now getting a better understanding of how operational research works."
"I'd like to see the research influencing policy."” said Nomonde Mqayi, the Clinical TB Manager for Ekurhuleni municipality in Gauteng.
"It's important to work with people who are on the ground, as we can see how to make our clinical research workable in terms of treating people at the clinic ",” said Nomonde's research partner, Edmore Marinda, who is a senior lecturer in bio-statistics at Wits University.
Audrey Molelekwa, who co-ordinates health programmes in the Northern Cape health department, says she’is looking forward to seeing how her research project could impact on her work.
Together with Linda Mureithi from the Cape Town-based Health Systems Trust, she is working on TB prevalence rates in the Northern Cape, which is beset with challenges, because of the vast distances patients have to travel and the strain on staff.
Data is important in terms of decision-making, budgeting and planning. We also need it to lobby the Treasury for more money, “ said Molelekwa.
Joshua Irvedo, who is a registrar at the Umtata General Hospital in the Eastern Cape, said he was concerned about the TB default rate in his area and would like to play a part in trying to turn the tide of these abysmal statistics, which are far below WHO recommended rates”.
Global TB expert, Professor Emeritus Anne Fanning from Canada, sees the workshops as innovative and potentially groundbreaking.
Practitioners in the field and researchers are often too distant from earch other. This is a great way to get them together to work on a very specific task for 18 months. Not only will it enhance their work, but it could lead to an improvement in TB programmes in South Africa.”
The programme is made possible through funding from the United State Agency for International Development (USAID).
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