Medical research key to quality healthcare - Kaseba

EVIDENCE-BASED medical research will help prevent loss of life through effective interventions in health service in Zambia, says former first lady Christine Kaseba.

Dr Kaseba who is a medical doctor said Government should realise that research comes with a cost in order to come up with interventions to prevent loss of life. She said many interventions were cost effective as they prevented loss of life such as maternal deaths.

She explained that there was need to embark on a roadmap on how to bridge the evidence gap in health research to focus on effective indicators to performance.

“If we are going to translate research into practice, Government has to know that it is costly. The cost might appear big but when you look at the effects, the lives that you will be saving, you will find that a lot of interventions are cost effective, and they prevent deaths,” she said.

Dr Kaseba, a physician and medical surgeon herself said Zambia must begin to invest in evidenced-based and high impact research to prevent diseases, and also deal with the evidence gap in the health system.

She was speaking at the Evidence for Impact symposium held under the theme “Translating Research into Gains in Community and Primary healthcare”.

The former first lady said medical research must be considered an important aspect in improving healthcare services with effective outcomes.

And Dr Kaseba has called for the adaptation of the mother-and-child skin-to-skin kangaroo care as a natural remedy in caring for premature babies outside medical facilities.

Dr Kaseba said kangaroocare was a very effective method of sharing natural heat from the mother to the small baby especially in rural areas where they did not have access to incubators.

She said this on the sidelines of the 3 day health research symposium in Lusaka.

“All that must be ensured is that the mother understands that kangaroo care is skin-toskin, that the baby must be held inside the clothes of the mother, with direct contact of the skin, and covered with adequate warm clothing to maintain the warmth.

“Many premature babies have died because of exposure to cooler temperatures than inside of the womb, but the skinto-skin therapy helps create an artificial warmth like that of the womb,” she said.