Ifakara Health Institute’s Provision of Essential Treatment in Critical Illness (POETIC) project has organized a three-day meeting in Dar es Salaam starting today. The meeting will be attended by all participants involved in the POETIC project including the project management team, scientific advisors, investigators and collaborators.

The aim of the meeting is for the various participants to discuss the POETIC project and the underlined concept of Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) including POETIC background, set-up, management and progress. The meeting was hosted by Ifakara Health Institute and officially opened by Dr. Honorati Masanja, Ifakara’s Chief Executive Director.

In his opening remarks during the meeting, Dr. Masanja expressed his expectations to see how the POETIC project is evolving and the next steps for the project research and the impact the findings will have on patients on the ground and the policies.

Introducing the meeting was POETIC project team member, Tim Baker, who welcomed the participants, highlighted objectives of the meeting and hinted on expected outcomes at the end of the three-day meeting saying, “It is great to finally be able to meet in person. All of us as a team will have the opportunity to discuss, brainstorm and learn from each other about the information we have gathered.”

The meeting is attended by 27 participants from Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), University of Oxford, Centre for Global Development (CGD), Co-lutions Tanzania, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana School of Medicine, Cameroon Health Services, University of Malawi, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science, Western University of Canada, HBNI University in India, Uppsala University in Sweden, Karolinska Institutet and PATH International.

The POETIC project is funded by Wellcome Trust and is a collaboration between the CGD, LSHTM, KEMRI and Uppsala University. One of the key objectives of this project is to identify the most efficient pathway for providing critical care in low medium-income countries (LMICs) particularly in Kenya and Tanzania using the EECC concept.

The project began in September 2020 and is expected to be completed within 12 months.