The Director of Navrongo Health Research Centre, Dr. Patrick Ansah, and two senior staff members from the Navrongo Health Research Centre, Dr. Raymond Aborigo, and Dr. Engelbert Nonterah, attended a week-long collaborative meeting with the Arnhold Institute of Global Health (AIGH) in the Icahn Medical School of Medicine at Mount Sinai University in New York.
As part of the week-long partnership engagement meetings, two collaborative events were organized on the 6th (in-person and virtual) and 8th (in-person) of June 2023 to shed light on Ghana’s healthcare landscape and the global fight against chronic diseases. The three represented the Navrongo Health Research Centre in a Webinar at the Arnhold Institute of Global Health and a subsequent panel discussion at the New York Academy of Medicine.
On June 6th, Dr. Ansah, Dr. Aborigo, and Dr. Nonterah attended the highly anticipated webinar titled “What is the Mount Sinai Ghana Partnership” at the prestigious Arnhold Institute of Global Health. The event aimed to foster collaboration between healthcare and health research institutions in Ghana and the Mount Sinai Health System, New York, to enhance research and improve health outcomes for Ghanaian communities. Driven by their shared vision of addressing critical health challenges, the webinar fostered productive discussions on potential joint projects and research initiatives, and achievements thus far.
In a presentation at the Webinar, Dr. Patrick Ansah, gave an overview of the Centre touching on the key role of every department, staff capacity and infrastructure, ongoing projects and highlighted the Centre’s accomplishments and contributions in the field of health research. After the Webinar, the three joined Dr. David Heller, an associate professor at the Arnhold Institute of Global Health in a panel discussion where deliberations centered on the partnership between the Arnhold Institute of Global Health and the Navrongo Health Research Centre’s studies, innovative approaches to community health, and ongoing efforts to combat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
Building upon the webinar’s success, Dr. Engelbert Nonterah, a Senior clinician-researcher and Dr. Raymond Aborigo, a senior research fellow (Public Health) joined Dr. David J. Heller of AIGH and Hellen McGuire of PATH International and a member of the Coalition for Access to NCD Medicines & Products in a panel discussion on 8th June 2023 on the theme “Bridging Borders for Health: A Global Approach to Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment in Ghana.”
The event, which brought together experts and professionals from various disciplines and departments at the Arnhold Institute of Global Health, aimed to explore collaborative strategies to address the rising burden of chronic diseases in Ghana and strengthen healthcare systems.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Nonterah and Dr. Aborigo shared their extensive knowledge and experience in chronic disease prevention and treatment. They highlighted access to NCD medication through forecasting and subsidizing medications through Health Insurance, geographical access to screening and treatment of common conditions at the primary healthcare level, improving the benefits package for health insurance and greater political will and commitment to NCD care needs as proposed strategies to improve and effectively tackle global health issues such as NCD care.
Their valuable insights and contributions were met with great appreciation by the attendees, who recognized the immense potential for partnership between the Navrongo Health Research Centre and global institutions like the Arnhold Institute of Global Health and Mount Sinai Health System.
The three health experts ended their series of collaborative discussions with a presentation on the Navrongo Health Research Centre and Environmental Health Research at the Environmental Medicine team of researchers, faculty and students at the Icahn School of Medicine. Dr Nonterah in the presentation highlighted the ongoing pilot environmental studies ongoing in NHRC, the potential for further research and the need for interventions on clean energy sources for cooking, household lighting and safe disposal of refuse to minimize indoor and outdoor air pollution.
He also highlighted the role of Geospatial models in predicting ambient air pollution and how these could be linked to numerous health outcomes within the Navrongo HDSS database.
The presentation drew interest from students who are engaged in ongoing exchange programs. Faculty members were interested in including NHRC in future partnerships for exchange as well as for research collaboration.