By Taboka Ngwako
COLLABORATION INTEGRATED APPROACH KEY
Academic collaboration is essential for the development of an integrated approach to health service delivery especially for non-communicable disease (NCD) management, US ambassador Mr Craig Cloud has said.
He was speaking during a tour of the University of Botswana’s (UB) Rehabilitation and Robotics Laboratory located at Sir Ketumile Teaching Hospital in Gaborone July 27.
Mr Cloud said the approach was critical to reduction of increasing death and disability due to NCDs.
He expressed delight at the collaboration between UB, particularly its Faculty of Medicine, with organisations such as University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Aids Research and US Fulbright Scholarship saying they facilitated access to better health care.
“I hope to see more projects of this nature among all institutions in the country including increased collaboration to enhance problem-solving in most social ills currently being experienced,” he said. Through the use of simple robots, the laboratory, under UB’s Faculty of Medicine, is mandated to assess NCD therapy in Botswana. Mr Cloud said in delivering services, activities should not be limited to the prevention and treatment of strokes but should include understanding and managing resulting comorbidities and disabilities. He said this in view of the increased risks of death and disability due to NCDs including cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
He said people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries such as Botswana were surviving longer with the infection due to aggressive highly active antiretroviral therapy programmes. For her part, Fulbright Scholar, Dr Michelle Johnson said there was a growing concern that increased rates of stroke and other NCDs among the HIV infected in low and middle-income countries would erode health gains achieved in the last decade.
She said, for that reason, UB found it imperative to develop and use technology, specifically robotics and therapy games, to increase access to rehabilitation services after stroke including the HIV-related type. The rehabilitation services include understanding neural and motor re-learning after HIV-related stroke, she said. Dr Johnson said some UB students had created a series of custom and commercial assessment therapy games aimed at motivating users to engage in therapeutic activities using robots. “Furthermore our students have also designed a system which will aim to reduce upper limb motor impairment and cognitive impairment due to HIV, stroke, including the combined issues of HIV and stroke,” she said.
He was speaking during a tour of the University of Botswana’s (UB) Rehabilitation and Robotics Laboratory located at Sir Ketumile Teaching Hospital in Gaborone July 27.
Mr Cloud said the approach was critical to reduction of increasing death and disability due to NCDs.
He expressed delight at the collaboration between UB, particularly its Faculty of Medicine, with organisations such as University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Aids Research and US Fulbright Scholarship saying they facilitated access to better health care.
“I hope to see more projects of this nature among all institutions in the country including increased collaboration to enhance problem-solving in most social ills currently being experienced,” he said. Through the use of simple robots, the laboratory, under UB’s Faculty of Medicine, is mandated to assess NCD therapy in Botswana. Mr Cloud said in delivering services, activities should not be limited to the prevention and treatment of strokes but should include understanding and managing resulting comorbidities and disabilities. He said this in view of the increased risks of death and disability due to NCDs including cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
He said people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries such as Botswana were surviving longer with the infection due to aggressive highly active antiretroviral therapy programmes. For her part, Fulbright Scholar, Dr Michelle Johnson said there was a growing concern that increased rates of stroke and other NCDs among the HIV infected in low and middle-income countries would erode health gains achieved in the last decade.
She said, for that reason, UB found it imperative to develop and use technology, specifically robotics and therapy games, to increase access to rehabilitation services after stroke including the HIV-related type. The rehabilitation services include understanding neural and motor re-learning after HIV-related stroke, she said. Dr Johnson said some UB students had created a series of custom and commercial assessment therapy games aimed at motivating users to engage in therapeutic activities using robots. “Furthermore our students have also designed a system which will aim to reduce upper limb motor impairment and cognitive impairment due to HIV, stroke, including the combined issues of HIV and stroke,” she said.
