By Ikome Christie-NoellaEposi in Buea
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof. Ngomo Horace Manga has on Thursday, May 12, 2022 launched the Data Center for the study of Surgery, Injury and Equity in Africa (D-SINE Africa) project which establishes a program of systematic collection of data on injuries through trauma registries in various hospitals in Cameroon in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon.
The D-SINE Africa research projects hosted by the Faculty of Health Sciences will help reduce the burden of injuries and bridge the gap of inequities to surgical services in African countries. The two research projects awarded to the University of Buea by the United States of America’s based organizations; National Institute of Health (NIH) and Forgarty International Center(FIC) are all in a bid to analyze and improve access to quality surgical care in Cameroon in particular and Africa as a whole. The first research project for which the University of Buea is the prime recipient is titled “Harnessing Data Science to promote equity in Injury and Surgery for Africa” while the second project is titled “quantitative guideline for the multidisciplinary trauma research in Cameroon”, funded to the tune of 1 million, 300 thousand US dollars also geared toward training injury focused researchers for a period of 5 years.
In his Keynote address, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof Ngomo Horace Manga congratulated the principal investigator of the projects and professor of surgery, Prof. Chichom Mefire whom he described as the “main architect” of the achievements for the University of Buea.
He mentioned that the project awarded to the University of Buea is worth FCFA 3 billion, 500 million to be for a duration of 5 years. “ The D-SINE Africa Center will massively collect data on injuries in 10 partner hospitals located in 5 regions of the country. The Center will also open tremendous training and research funding opportunities for scientist in the University of Buea” he noted.
Presenting the project and it’s scientific aspects, Prof. Chichom Mefire noted that Injury records death cases more than HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Injuries he said cause 5.8 million deaths per year worldwide. He added that around the world, the number of persons living with some form of disability is estimated at 650 million. “Community bases survey has shown that total injury incidence of 63 injuries are recorded per 1000 persons” he mentioned.
Talking to the press, the VC of the University of Buea said it was an additional feather for the University being awarded such a top-notch project. “The potential impact these projects will have in our University and in our community is our primary concern. The outcome of the project is the creation of the data center which will leverage on the tools of predictive modeling to study surgery, injuries and equity and how these three words can be combined to lessen the burden of injuries. It’s going to be a center which will have a great impact on our community” he stated.
“We are going to deploy a number of research assistants under this project in the next few weeks to 10 hospitals all over the country. They will be responsible for collecting data which will be analyzed and will guide decision makers into what to do to control the problems of injuries in Cameroon. Injuries in Cameroon are still neglected so we believe a lot needs to be done. We are opening a data center coordinated by the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea to collect data on injuries” Professor Mefire told the press.
“There are two ways of controlling injuries. The first way is prevention and other way is the measures put in place by the health system to face a specific event. We are focusing on improving the care of those who after all get injured” he added.
The Project which is expected to end by 2026 will be conducted in collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles ( United States of America), University of California Berkeley ( United States of America), University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Cameroon).