Improving the quality of care during pregnancy and childbirth is one of the main objectives of the Dugald Baird Centre. This work addresses key research questions here in Scotland and in the poorer parts of the world. From Thursday June 15th to Saturday June 17th, the Centre will be hosting a three-day workshop to mark the end of their first major international project.
For the last two and a half years, the Centre has been working with research partners in Ghana and Jamaica to see if an approach to improving the quality of care that is used routinely in Scotland – criterion-based audit – can also work in their district hospitals.
Three of the collaborators are coming to Aberdeen from each country – Dr Kofi Asare, Dr Kojo Yeboah Antwi and Mr Richard Henneh from Ghana, and Dr Deanna Ashley, Dr Affette McCaw-Binns and Ms Georgiana Gordon from Jamaica. Both teams of investigators are drawn primarily from ministries of health – the equivalent to the UK Department of Health.
The project has shown that it is feasible to carry out audit in these countries and that the process does improve the practice of clinicians regarding the management of life-threatening obstetric complications. These sorts of complications kill over half-a-million women each year, with over 99% of the deaths occurring in developing countries. This is the first time that using a criterion-based audit approach to improving obstetric care has been tried and shown to work overseas.
The project is funded by the UK Department for International Development, and the Aberdeen investigators are Dr Prabhath Wagaarachchi, Dr Wendy Graham, Dr Marion Hall and Dr Gillian Penney. All members of this team have spent time at the participating hospitals overseas and - as Dr Graham says - “feel honoured to have had this opportunity to work in partnership towards the prevention of maternal deaths.” The Centre will be commencing two new research projects in the autumn which will also contribute to the global efforts to make motherhood safer.
Further information about the Dugald Baird Centre may be found on the following website: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/dugaldbairdcentre
Further information from:
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.