Binny Chokshi’s TB Bolo Update
July 17th, 2008Protocol:
We submitted the protocol to Dr. Flabou last wednesday. He emailed back with comments early this week, the most important being that we needed a signature from the Chef de Vilage of Sikoro and the Mayor. Once we fixed it up and got the signatures, Dr. Flabou told us to bring the protocol directly to the Faculty of Medicine (at Point G) which we did today. We met with the guy who seemed to be in charge of the Commite de Etique submissions, and he told us many things that we had not heard before. The two most important being 1.) We need to submit the protocol by Tuesday, in order for it to be seen that Saturday. This means that we will not go to the Committee until next Saturday July 26th. 2.) The cost of submission to the committee (as i think karamoko has written) is $500+. (S#e^%*Fge&^bK)!!!!!
Peer Educators:
We met with them last week, as I had emailed. It was a great productive discussion, that resulted in the decision to have a salary increase for the two month pilot period. We are meeting with them again tomorrow with a few goals in mind: 1.) To let them know that the budget was a go, and salary increase approved. 2.) To go over the curriculum with all 11 educators in French/Bambara, 3.) To go over the logistics of the TB BOLO project (specifically those that make it different from here Bolo, i.e cough questionaire, active screening for at risk patient) 4.) Introduce them to Salimata, from the clinic, who handles all the TB cases in Sikoro. We have asked Salimata to explain to the peer educators the process of a Tb patient in Sikoro, where to get tested, where to get meds, who administers meds, etc.
My thoughts:
- I’m going to ask Karamoko to send the name of the person we spoke with today regarding protocol submission. If we had spoken with him from the outset, we would have known all this extra information regarding the process of presenting to the Commitee and we could have moved faster! This has taken quite a while and I feel frustrated that we can’t get to the committee before the 26th, cause i’ll be gone on the 30th! Also perhaps he can send us a format that we can use for future submissions
- I’m worried about TB Bolo Pilot once I leave, because there will be nobody directly “in charge” of the project. Karamoko can take on this responsibility, but he’s got a lot on his plate (?) also I think it would be better for it to be one of the peer educators. I think that once the peer educators are out in the community, many questions/issues will arise (i.e regarding the protocol for at risk patients, regarding money, etc.) and I think it would be nice to have somebody solid that the peer educators can direct their questions to. Sophie S and I have discussed the possibility of having Ablo (a super motivated, and charasimatic peer educator) be in charge. Again, the issue of time and compensation arises…and here is where the thoughts that Sophie S has been expressing re: Rama come into focus….
- The $500+ is a huge bummer. Paying it strengthens my previous point that we need to make sure we follow through with the TB project. It would be very unfortunate to see it struggle after we’ve put all this time and money into it!!
Okay,phew!
-Binny
PS: Karamoko and I are definitely making way with the French/English barrier. haha, we drove to and from Point G today and it was not in silence! I even taught him how to say Awesome! haha and this morning he greeted me with a “Hi Binny!”