Implementation and Quality (IMPAQT) – Claudia Hanson's research group

Within our group, we are actively contributing to strengthening the interaction and synergies between education and research. We see education and training as part of our global commitment to thrive to a sustainable development. We are interdisciplinary and intercultural teachers who try to emphasize that teaching needs to go hand in hand with research at a university. Within our group we have members active in education management, course leadership and lecturing. We supervise doctoral and master students in global public health, students from other programs at Karolinska Institutet and at other Universities in and outside of Sweden.

Course organisation

We have the following course organisation responsibilities:

Helle leads a 5-week course in “Qualitative Methods” in the Master’s programme in Public Health Sciences including the 2 tracks on public health epidemiology and health promotion and prevention, https://education.ki.se/programme-syllabus/4FH19

Helle also is responsible for the module on qualitative methods in the course “Research Methods” in the Master’s programme in Global Health, https://education.ki.se/programme-syllabus/3GB12

Claudia leads 2-week “Research management” of the Master’s in Public Health Sciences https://education.ki.se/programme-syllabus/4FH19

Sibylle leads a 8-week course “Health systems and Policy” (10 credits) in the Health Economics, Policy and Management master program  https://education.ki.se/programme/4hm17-masters-in-health-economics-policy-and-management

PhD training courses

We also organise PhD training courses: Claudia leads the 2-week course “Core concepts in Global Health and Global Burden of Disease” and “Research Management for Quality Data Collection)

Doctoral Programme in Biology of Infections and Global Health (BIGH) | Karolinska Institutet (ki.se)

Sibylle leads the course on “Health Policy and Management” of the Doctoral programme in Public Health Science (PHSP) | Medarbetare (ki.se)

Vaccine confidence

There are several projects that currently take place in the field of vaccine confidence building within the IMPAQT research group.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy and rumours

This project is funded by FORTE, it studies rumours and trust in vaccine hesitant communities in Sweden. These communities include migrant communities, anthroposophic communities and Swedish speaking online communities. We use qualitative and social media listening methods to study the origin of rumours and explore the concept of trust using participatory action methods.

Africa Vaccine Trust Network

This is an ongoing VR funded project (2023-2024) that connects four African countries (Benin, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda) to develop joint research questions regarding emerging vaccine confidence questions, particularly among health workers.

Vaccine confidence among health workers in Nigeria and Ethiopia

This is a VR funded project (2023-2026) that aims to test an innovative social media intervention that addresses specific vaccine concerns (particularly regarding new vaccines) among health workers.

HPV vaccine confidence in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This is a project that has received funding from the Einhorn Foundation. The aim is to understand HPV vaccine hesitancy among adolescents, parents and the community in selected schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that have shown low HPV vaccine uptake.

Global HPV burden study

This is a large-scale project funded by Bill and Melinda Gates that spans across seven countries that have not yet implemented national HPV vaccine programmes. The aim of the project is to establish HPV16 and 18 prevalence and explore intention and barriers to vaccination once vaccines are available.

Vaccine confidence and faith-leaders

This project explored the role that faith-leaders play in building vaccine confidence in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

COVID-19 vaccine confidence in Sweden

This project investigated COVID-19 vaccine concerns among migrants and among online communities in Sweden.

See also the news article:

• Så får falska vaccinrykten fäste
• How false vaccine rumours take hold

Contact

Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC)

Critical illness results in millions of deaths each year. Care for those with critical illness is often neglected due to a lack of prioritisation, co-ordination, and coverage of timely identification and basic life-saving treatments. To improve care, we are working on the innovative concept, Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) – the care that all critically ill patients should receive in all hospitals in the world.

Essential emergency and critical care should be part of universal health coverage, is appropriate for all countries in the world, and is intended for patients irrespective of age, gender, underlying diagnosis, medical specialty, or location in the hospital. Essential emergency and critical care is pragmatic and low-cost and has the potential to improve care and substantially reduce preventable mortality. 

Critical Illness and Sepsis Prevalence and Outcomes Studies (CRISPOS)

We are conducting prospective cohort studies of the prevalence and outcomes of patients with critical illness and sepsis in hospitals in Malawi, Sri Lanka and Sweden. The aims are to determine the proportion of in-patients that are critically ill and that have sepsis and to determine the mortality rates and the relative risk of critical illness and sepsis.

Improving the care of critically ill patients in Malawi and Tanzania

We are conducting several projects in hospitals in Malawi and Tanzania to improve the care and outcomes of patients with critical illness. Projects include the Vital Signs Directed Therapy project, the ICU Register and Outcomes project, paediatric critical care projects and peri-operative mapping projects.

Publications

The global need for essential emergency and critical care.
Schell CO, Gerdin Wärnberg M, Hvarfner A, Höög A, Baker U, Castegren M, Baker T
Crit Care 2018 Oct;22(1):284

Vital Signs Directed Therapy: Improving Care in an Intensive Care Unit in a Low-Income Country.
Baker T, Schell CO, Lugazia E, Blixt J, Mulungu M, Castegren M, Eriksen J, Konrad D
PLoS One 2015 ;10(12):e0144801

Risk Factors for Mortality in Severely Ill Children Admitted to a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Malawi.
Ngwalangwa F, Phiri CHA, Dube Q, Langton J, Hildenwall H, Baker T
Am J Trop Med Hyg 2019 Sep;101(3):670-675

The Prevalence and Outcomes of Sepsis in Adult Patients in Two Hospitals in Malawi.
Kayambankadzanja RK, Schell CO, Namboya F, Phiri T, Banda-Katha G, Mndolo SK, et al
Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 2020 Apr;102(4):896-901

Contact

Nigeria project of anemia

To be updated.

Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine

Full project title: Collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine and the Health System and Policy research group

Collaboration with the hospital and the HSP research group on research capacity strengthening. The collaboration involves provision of method courses, workshop and supervision of doctoral students (PI is Professor Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg). One of the doctoral students are supervised in our team and  working on the feasibility and acceptability of Chinese Pediatric Massage. We are looking at home- and facility-based prevention and management of recurrent respiratory tract infections in young children in an urban area in southern China.

Contact