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Research Projects
Patient circumstances and their imaging and treatment options vary enormously across the world. An imaging test which is considered useful in one setting, may not be useful or available in another.
New technologies, such as AI and portable equipment will have very different applications and value in different health systems. There is very little evidence to guide the best use of imaging tests in resource limited settings and a real need and opportunity for more research in this area.
Through links with various UK and international academic institutions we support imaging research.
Research Partner Institutions
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Can we simplify cardiac echo to make it accessible more widely in Sub-Saharan Africa?
This study, funded by a Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's (RSTMH) early career research grant, aims to enhance the global health community's understanding of the accuracy of simplified cardiac echo. Findings will be shared at scientific conferences and in prominent journals.
Led by Dr. Ben Porter, an infectious diseases trainee from Oxford, working in collaboration with Dr. Wanjiku Kagima at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, this initiative is a spin off from her successful PhD project on POCUS, also supported by our volunteers in 2022.
The CMRAD platform will be instrumental in enabling two cardiac echo experts and a team of 8 general health workers from different countries in Africa to review and interpret the images.
The scarcity of health workers proficient in advanced cardiac imaging in Sub-Saharan Africa underpins the significance of this study. By demonstrating the potential validity of a simplified ultrasound technique, we aim to empower healthcare workers with a portable, user-friendly tool, thereby broadening the reach of accurate cardiac diagnostics in the region.
Dr Ben Porter presenting preliminary findings at the RSTMH Annual Research in Progress meeting
Delivering ultrasound training in Madagascar
Neuroradiologist and our trustee Dr Reena Dwivedi delivered ultrasound training in collaboration with research team members from the Institut Pasteur Madagascar and the University of Oxford in January 2024.
The “Projet d'échographie pour décrire la morphologie des bubons dans la peste bubonique à Madagascar” (Ultrasound project to describe the morphology of buboes in bubonic plague in Madagascar) is a unique study, aiming to develop an understanding of how plague buboes evolve with treatment in Madagascar, using portable ultrasound.
We very honoured to have been invited by the study teams in Oxford and Madagascar to collaborate on this project, based on our expertise in delivering point of care ultrasound training for other infectious diseases research projects in Africa.
