A component of SIGH’s mission is to provide the connection and means for educating and supporting medical specialist training in developing countries. 

In October 2017, Dr. Ulrika Birgersdotter-Green, a cardiologist from the University of California, San Diego, led a team comprised of support pediatric cardiac echo specialists, pacemaker technicians, cardiac interventionists and adult and pediatric cardiovascular surgeons to provide cardiac specialist medical education and training at the University of Eduardo Mondlane, (UEM) in Maputo, Mozambique.
The group of cardiac specialists worked with the UEM cardiologists and medical staff through formal lectures, daily workshops, and assistance with procedures in surgery, electrophysiology and echocardiograms.

SIGH hopes to continue to support this partnership in the future.

More than 10 million people die annually from infection with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (TB). The emergence of resistant and increasingly deadly TB is associated with poor medication adherence to TB therapy. TB is spread through the air and as such is a major worldwide public health threat.

In May 2017, SiGH funded work by Dr. Jonathan Gonzalez-Garcia to include Mexican Bi-National TB infected patients in a clinical trial conducted by UCSD to test Wirelessly Observed Therapy versus the gold standard of care Directly Observed Therapy (DOT). DOT is used to support TB treatment monitoring and medication adherence support. However, DOT is very expensive and requires a highly developed public health system that does not exist in most high burden countries. As TB treatment involves multiple medications and requires 6-12 months of treatment new technologies can offer both treatment monitoring and adherence support, but Low and Middle Income Countries don't even get to test these technologies. SiGH is working to make sure high burden countries get to review and test novel mobile/digital health technology that could make major differences t the epidemics in their countries and in so doing make the entire world safer.

In October 2017, this work, on which Dr. Gonzalez-Garcia was a co-author, was presented at the largest international TB conference know as the Union World Conference on Lung Health. This year’s conference was in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Here are some press releases from the conference:

http://guadalajara.worldlunghealth.org/media/press/press-releases

Ushering in a new era of TB science: Studies show progress in finding new TB diagnosisand treatment options

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In April 2017, Dr. Sara Browne, (President of SIGH) traveled to Maputo, Mozambique to visit some of the local hospitals and medical teaching facilities. Her goal during this visit was to see first-hand what resources were available to the medical specialists, and also determine what SIGH could do to support the improvement of resources. 

One of the major needs for Maputo General Hospital is the expansion and improvement of the Internet within the hospital. In the second half of 2017, SiGH plans to raise and grant funds to the hospital to expand Internet availability and connectivity in the departments of Medicine and Radiology as well as the hospital’s laboratory. Building a stable Internet connection will allow medical staff to communicate more efficiently and effectively, and with stable Internet access, physicians can increase their research and training capabilities and improve the quality of treatment for their patients. 

(These photos were taking at Maputo General Hospital and Hospital De Mavalane.)

On February 14, 2017, SiGH hosted SiGH at CROI*. This round table was comprised of physicians of multiple specialties from across the USA and Southern Africa (Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Malawi).

Through this meeting, SiGH was able to  facilitate a discussion between colleagues to promote future collaboration between those in the USA and Africa. SiGH can help connect them with what they need to improve patient care.  The African Doctors shared what their specific specialists education training goals and MHealth needs are for their settings. 

The meeting included presentations from California-based technology development companies. These companies shared medical technologies that are in development.

* For more information on CROI visit: http://www.croiconference.org/