Synoptic Report on the Global Health Trials Workshop held in Lagos, Nigeria on 6th November 2013

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The workshop went on successfully as the participants where highly encouraging and engaging, asking questions and also providing their own quota of suggestions on the way forward to questions asked. We had 88 attendees.

All the speakers came up as scheduled and gave their best to the program. The program started at 8:30am with registration of the participants and a welcome address by Dr. Okubadejo and ended with a vote of thanks from Mr. Emmanuel Benyeogor at 5:15pm.

Dr. Okubadejo, the Chair, welcomed the participants at 9:15am to the College of Medicine at Lagos University’s Teaching Hospital-  host to the workshop - as a handful were visiting from outside the institution. She also commended the Global Health Network for their initiative and looked forward to future collaborations.

“How you can use Global Health Trials to facilitate your work” given by Emmanuel Benyeogor followed the welcome and opening remarks at 9:25am.

Questions & Answers from this included: Why a smaller group “Nigeria” was necessary. How often the workshop could be held in a year in Nigeria? Why this was the second since 2012? Advantages of Networking on the site were also discussed.

Dr. Morenike added that issues concerning us in Nigeria could be discussed on the network as a group and that anyone in the world - who is a member of the network - seeking such information in Nigeria could easily find collaborators this way.

A Tea Break followed immediately from 10:25am till 11:10am.

“How to write a protocol and what do reviewers look for?” an engaging lecture given by Dr. Morenike, took participants, both skilled and unskilled, through the intricacies of Protocol writing to what reviewers look for before granting approval.

Questions which ended this session at 12:10pm covered various topics including Ethical Clearance and Guidelines with regards to protocol writing.

Mr. Ogundokun Olusegun delivered his lecture on the topic of clinical trials in, “Monitoring: How to know what to monitor depending on your research”. The session concluded at 1:10pm and was immediately followed by Augustine Onyeaghala Ph.D, who lectured the participants on the fundamentals of GCP and GCLP and their application. This lecture finished at 2:10pm when Lunch was taken and participants took the opportunity to relax.

The highly anticipated talk, “Career Development in Research” was delivered by Dr. Glory who discussed this theme within a Clinical research setting from 2:40pm till 3:40pm. He provided detailed personal experiences and explained the opportunities for developing a career in clinical research in Nigeria.

There followed a question and answer session till 4:00pm.

The final, Interactive, session was chaired by Dr Ogunfowokan Glory and minutes were taken by Ogundokun Olusegun. This started at about 4:15pm and was concluded at 5:15pm.

ISSUES DISCUSSED

·         Mr Babafemi Imeh (Lagos state University Teaching Hospital) spoke about Nigeria lacking an enabling environment, for example inconstant electricity power supply and non-standardization of laboratory and other research equipment used to carry out research.

·         This was addressed by Mr Emmanuel Fasela (IHVN) who suggested that all laboratories and research centres in Nigeria must be forced to meet WHO-AFRO accreditation requirements.

·         The issue of the epileptic power supply was addressed by Mr Popoola (IAMR) and Mrs Ogechukwu Ezeodo (Med. Lab.Sci) who explaned that using an inverter as an alternative to generators ousdie of work hours will ameliorate this problem.

·         Mr Julius Bankole (lecturer in Histopathology) said that professionals in research laboratories and clinical trials should stop practicing like quacks. They should insist on doing the right thing at the right time, in case equipment fails to work, it should be reported at the time and not managed.

·         Dr Okunola (Sen. Registrar O & G) spoke about Nigerians lacking data and record keeping management. He said that it would be useful were the organizers of this program to become involved with hospital management boards when planning for the program so that the board members and policy makers can also take part and decide on the best way forward.

·         Mr Ogundokun Olusegun (Clinical Res. Professional) stressed this point giving examples of how some hospital units are hoarding patient’s records and data and not sharing them with other units due to inter-professional conflict. He further explained how he was able to set a standard for data management where he works.

·         Dr. Glory (National Hospital Abuja) also expressed disappointment at the Nigerian data management situation and spoke about how he tries to inculcate a strong data management culture in his department.

·         Mr Emmanuel (biochemist) oriented the participants about “openclinica”, a database that collates patients’ results and findings online. He said that it would be nice if Nigerian Hospital management boards could make use of this database.

·         Mr Julius (lecturer) asked about the possibility of having more of these enlightened programmes.

·         Mr Awogbindin (Doctoral student) asked why the number of clinical trials in Nigeria is so few and how it can be increased.

·         Mr Adewale Olusegun (IHVN) said that if government parastatal organisations could begin to emulate organizations that imbibe a data management culture into their practice then this would encourage others that lack this culture. He also asked how clinical trials could be introduced into our university curriculum.

·         Mr Ogundokun Olusegun (Clinical Res. Professional) answered by saying that he is already drafting a proposal to the National President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Science to introduce a clinical trial programme into their on-line Continuous Professional Development program and also to implore other professional bodies to do so. Mr Julius (Lecturer) said that the program can only be added into university curricula with the support of the University senate and the Nigeria University Commission.

·         Miss Kemi Olawoyin (physiotherapy Student) spoke about the need for more volunteers in clinical trials as this will boost their growth in Nigeria.

·         Dr Abimbola said that all medical professional bodies should try and work as a team because united we stand, divided we fall.

·         Mr Julius suggested that it would be so nice if we had Global health trials clubs in all hospitals and institutions of learning. All participants agreed that they will aim to start this up immediately when they get back to their various places of primary assignment.

·         The participants asked to be issued with a certificate of attendance as proof of attendance to the various organizations that they came from. The faculty members assured them that something will be done to that end.

Resolutions:

-          Ensure Good Clinical Laboratory Practice

-          Seek alternative power supply options (Inverters, Generators, etc)

-          Appeal to relevant bodies to recover data centers in the nation, at our level encourage point of access health care delivery system “Data management”.

-          Professionals should speak up and stop practicing like quacks: insist on doing the right thing as professionals.

-          Involve hospitals and all cadres of the research team in the important task of record keeping for future use and in computerized record keeping.

-          Willingness to be the change we want to see.

-          Organize an “Openclinca” software technical know-how seminar.

RECOMMENDATION

ü  The faculty hereby recommends that we hold a program at least two (2) times in a year as this will increase public awareness of the Global health trials network.

ü  Global health trials should please provide a certificate of attendance to the participants and mail it into their respective email address.

The session was ended with a vote of thanks from Mr Emmanuel around 5:15pm.

In conclusion, special thanks to Global health trials initiators and members of the Nigeria Faculty.   

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