Invest resources into medical research - Ayettey

Accra, May 3, GNA - Professor Andrew Seth Ayettey, immediate Past Provost of the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS), on Wednesday called on government and the private sector to invest resources into health research to ensure health security and create a sustained environment for productive work.

Prof. Ayettey said progress in research would lead to an improvement in the quality of life and productivity of individuals. He was speaking in Accra at the launch of the Third Annual Scientific Conference of the UGMS on the theme: "Research and Medical Practice."

Prof. Ayettey noted that very little emphasis had been placed on health research, although its socio-economic value was huge, saying it was time quality research was used to improve health care delivery. "In developed countries, government and industry commit huge sums of money to research to ensure the health security of their nations and protect the health of their citizens."

Prof. Ayettey said the College of Health Sciences was well positioned to lead in the war to change the health status of the country but needed a push from government, industry and corporate business groups to get on track to achieve its objectives and goals. He added that there was therefore the need to teach medical students to be critical thinkers and observers to enable them to discover diseases that had not been recognized before. Prof. Ayettey said research was an integral part of the College's core functions of teaching and service, pointing out that an academic institution without research culture was doomed. He said medical research had contributed to the reduction of Ghana's infant mortality rate from 120 deaths per every 1,000 births in 1865 to 67 deaths per 1,000 births in 2005. He said investment of resources into medical research could assist the country to lower the high maternal mortality rate, which varied from 140 deaths per every 1,000 births in urban areas to more than 250 deaths per 1,000 births in some communities.

"This is too high and unacceptable for the country." Prof. Ayettey called on government to source funds for the establishment of a Biomedical School and the Postgraduate Biomedical Research Institute this year. He said an Institute of Medical Research was also be set up from which medical research could be supported. Prof. Aaron Nii Lante Lawson, Dean, UGMS, said the three-day conference would give stakeholders in the health care sector an opportunity to share research findings on the utilization of obstetric services, respiratory diseases in children, alternative transfusion practices in emergency situations and operative management of the surgical patient.

He said deliberations would also be held on sexually transmitted diseases, proper implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Avian Influenza out break.

The conference would also examine the new National Malaria Policy in the light of recent developments, which have raised the possibility of having alternative anti-malaria drugs for those who cannot tolerate artesunate-amodiaquine.

He said the conference would come out with concrete suggestions, which would be passed on to policy makers for adoption and implementation.