Health Services Research Group (HSRG)

The Health Services Research Group has evolved from the Child and Newborn Health Group and spans a multi-disciplinary team based in Nairobi that has close links to the Ministry of Medical Services, The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences and the Kenya Paediatric Association.

In 2011 a formal Memorandum of Understanding to underpin and guide joint research and capacity development was signed by the KEMRI-WTRP, the Ministry of Medical Services and the University of Nairobi, College of Health Sciences, creating the Health Services, Implementation Research and Clinical Excellence (SIRCLE) Collaboration.

The KEMRI-WTRP’s Health Services Research Group is the main programme partner in this collaboration based on its work in a number of areas including:

•  Evidence synthesis, guideline development (using GRADE) and knowledge translation research: idoc-Africa, Child Health Evidence Week 2010 and key references: Agweyu, Musila, English, Opiyo.
• Conduct of pragmatic clinical trials to inform decisions on national treatment policies
• Development of health worker job aides and training courses that promote uptake of evidence-based practices in paediatric and newborn care. This work has seen the widespread adoption of guideline booklets in Kenya and rapidly expanding use of the Emergency Triage, Assessment and Training plus Admission  Care course (ETAT+) in undergraduate, post-graduate training and in-service training in Kenya and now in Rwanda and Uganda. ETAT+: RCPCH project: key references: Irimu, English.
• Development of methods to improve hospital inpatient information systems, promote uptake and value of hospital audit and assess quality of hospital care
• Evaluation, using a cluster randomized controlled trial, of a multifaceted intervention to improve paediatric care in Kenyan hospitals. key references: Ayieko; Gathara
• Use of qualitative methods to understand the influences of context on implementation success and barriers to adoption of best practices, key references: Mbindyo, Nzinga, English, and emerging work on clinical management and leadership
• Economic evaluation of interventions in the Kenyan context, key references: Akumu, Barasa.
• Human Resources for Health research, key references: Mbindyo, Blaauw, with emerging work on absenteeism and health worker distribution at a national scale.

Collaborators:

• University of Nairobi
• Ministry of Medical Services / Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation
• University of Witswatersrand
• University of Cape Town
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• University of Oxford
• Warwick University
• WHO-Geneva and WHO-Kenya
• Kenya Paediatric Association

Top Image: Participants at the Child Health Evidence week 2010, L-R: The 2010 National Paediatric Guidelines produced after the Child Health Evidence Week, The training team at the start of the Mulifaceted Intervention Research Study and A Hospital Nurse being trained in 'best-practice' care and use of national guidelines.