Bwindi Community Hospital research

Bwindi Community Hospital has an active research program involving projects lead by local staff, and other Ugandan and international partners. Links to some of this work are given below.

Our key needs for future development of this program is that it builds on what has already been done, innovates where possible, takes account of the data that is available, and identifies ways in which new projects can help further develop the hospital’s data assets for future research.

Our goal is to carryout high quality research in order to produce scientific knowledge in relation to health that enables improvements to the well being of the population.

so far, Morethan 60 Research studies have been done. Some of these studies are BCH’s initiative and others by our partners.

Current, past and planned future research has focused on the following areas :-

Community Health

Community Health Insurance (e-Quality)

Mental Health and subsistence abuse

Family planning and other reproductive health

Chronic Care

Laboratory ( e.g. microbiology)

Surgery

Operational Efficiency

HIV/TB

Maternal New born and Child Health

DATASETS: There are a variety of existing datasets at Bwindi Community Hospital that can potentially help most areas of research. The hospital’s data is a combination of electronic operational databases and paper records, with a significant part of it already in digital form, and the aim of achieving general integrated digitisation. Electronic databases currently support and keep records for the hospital’s main outpatient and inpatient services, its population-based community health insurance and community health outreach work, and its HIV programme. The data in these databases have provided, and can provide, the basis for a wide range of research. For it to do this, a researcher will need to work closely with, local experts, both technical and subject area. Our data assets are the product of substantial past investments in time and resources, from a variety of people. So, in both areas where our systems are more developed, and those where this is less so, we would want researchers to be part of a collaboration that helps us to develop these assets further for the future.

Institutions that we have partnered with and studies done

University of California Davis (PREDICT - Surveillance for emerging zoonotic disease threats and behavioral risk characterization in high-risk communities in Asia and Africa)

Colgate University (Community Health and Poverty Analysis)University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center ( Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Trends, Causes, Risk Factors, and Variables of Mortality Among Children under 5 years old in Bwindi, Uganda from 2008 to 2018)

Florida International University, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (Miami, FL, USA); University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, TX, USA); University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine (Birmingham, AL, USA) Identifying Barriers to HIV Management and Treatment in the Catchment Area of Bwindi Community Hospital

If you are interested in carrying out Research at BCH, read the BCH Research Procedure which includes; the research flow chart, research proposal form and data confidentiality form.

You can find our research papers from the journal Frontiers In Public Health via the links below.

Bwindi Community Hospital Research Proposal form

Kuule, Y., Dobson, A. E., Harries, A. D., Mutahunga, B., Stewart, A. G., & Wilkinson, E. (2018). Screening, Diagnosis, and Management of Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders at Bwindi Community Hospital, Uganda. Frontiers in public health, 6, 148 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00148/full

Kamugisha, S. R., Dobson, A. E., Stewart, A. G., Haven, N., Mutahunga, B., & Wilkinson, E. (2018). A Retrospective Cross Sectional Study of the Effectiveness of a Project in Improving Infant Health in Bwindi, South Western Uganda. Frontiers in public health, 6, 290 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00290/full

Haven, N., Dobson, A. E., Yusuf, K., Kellermann, S., Mutahunga, B., Stewart, A. G., & Wilkinson, E. (2018). Community-Based Health Insurance Increased Health Care Utilization and Reduced Mortality in Children Under-5, Around Bwindi Community Hospital, Uganda Between 2015 and 2017. Frontiers in public health, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00281/full

Kuule, Y., Dobson, A. E., Woldeyohannes, D., Zolfo, M., Najjemba, R., Edwin, B. M. R., ... & Wilkinson, E. (2017). Community health volunteers in primary healthcare in rural Uganda: factors influencing performance. Frontiers in public health, 5, 62 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00062/full

Stuart, K., Stewart, A. G., Wilkinson, E., Dobson, A. E., & Edwin, M. R. (2019). A whole systems approach to hospital waste management in rural Uganda. Frontiers in public health, 7, 136 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00136/full

Graffy, J., Capewell, S. J., Goodhart, C., & Rwamatware, B. M. (2016). Creating a whole institution approach to in-service training in sexual and reproductive health in Uganda. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care, 42(1), 52-58. https://srh.bmj.com/content/42/1/52.abstract