Over 50% of severe injuries referred to KATH results in deaths – Research Findings

Over 50 per cent of severe injuries referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, for emergency treatment normally result in death.

Again, over 82 per cent of all severe and moderate injuries admitted to the hospital are as a result of road traffic accidents.

Dr Daniel Osei-Kwame, Site Principal Investigator of the Trauma Emergency and Acute care Medicine Research Network (TEAM-RN) made these known at the 10th anniversary celebration of clinical research collaboration with KATH in Kumasi.

The celebration was on the theme: “A Decade of Discovery: Highlighting the team's achievements and breakthroughs in clinical research and healthcare”.

Dr Osei-Kwame said the medical research findings at KATH had had direct impact on patients care and aided in professional academic and medical publications.

The research findings, he indicated, had also contributed to the re-engineering of some medical gadgets to enhance healthcare delivery in the country and beyond.

He said the research by the network had brought to the fore the severe impact of accidents on the country's roads, workplaces, recreational facilities and other areas.

“Many people do not know that a lot of lives are being lost on our roads, workplaces, recreational facilities and others,” Dr Osei-Kwame said.

He stressed the need to share the research findings with the public periodically, to inform them about what was happening in the medical field.

“Once the information is in the public space, we will be able to draw out policies to counteract these issues,” he noted.

Despite the major achievements in research works, Dr Osei-Kwame said the TEAM RN faced some financial challenges as their work had no strong financial source, which threatened its sustainability.

“We fund the research with our internally generated funds and most of the members of the TEAM RN are not in mainstream salary employment,” he stated.

Dr Osei-Kwame said he hoped that the various applications written to source out financial help would be granted to enhance the smooth running of TEAM RN.

Dr Evans Ansu-Yeboah, the Deputy Director of Research and Development at KATH said the hospital had benefitted positively from the collaboration with TEAM RN.

Due to this, the KATH supported and continued to support the TEAM RN with some financial assistance drawn from the KATH Research Grant to minimize their financial burden.

Again, Dr Ansu-Yeboah, said the Research and Development Unit provided the TEAM RN with the necessary assistance in data accessibility and set-up.

He applauded the TEAM RN for their hard work in ensuring that KATH was placed as one of the leading research centers in Ghana and beyond.

GNA