Smile Train, NSOANP train healthcare providers on cleft research and funding

Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft care charity organisation, in partnership with the National Surgical, Obstetrics, Anaesthesia and Nursing Plan (NSOANP) has organised a training on research and grants writing for healthcare providers.

In a statement on Friday, the organisation said the five-day training was put together in a bid to bridge the knowledge gap in the area of medical research.

Smile Train noted that the training is also aimed at creating more impact in the scientific world and boosting capacity of participants in conducting research as well as critical research appraisal.

The workshop, which held in Lagos, had in attendance several surgeons and other healthcare workers drawn from various hospitals across the country.

In her opening remarks, Nkeiruka Obi, Smile Train vice-president and regional director for Africa, reinstated the organisation’s commitment to developing comprehensive cleft care.

She said Smile Train has set aside a significant amount of money to support grants and fund research on cleft care, adding that data was critical.

“Research is a spectrum, so we are looking at the preventive measures, treatment models/protocols, the rehabilitative aspect of cleft care given the fact that the moment a baby is discovered to have a cleft, research will pick it through prenatal diagnosis. When the child is born, and then the child will undergo surgery and so on,” Obi said.

Speaking on the training, Emmanuel Ameh, a professor and paediatric surgeon at National Hospital, Abuja, said the entire programme is designed to see how the research capacity of surgeons and healthcare providers in the country can be enhanced and expanded.

“One of the biggest challenges we have in the country is the fact that generating reliable and accurate data across our healthcare system has been a difficult thing for some time, and to be able to do that, you need to do good research. So we are training people on how to do good research,” Ameh said.

“Primarily, there is a National Surgical, Obstetrics, Anaesthesia and Nursing Plan that was created by the Federal Ministry of Health to help the country to strengthen surgical care, and one of the key priorities of the plan is research.

“Smile Train keyed into that priority by funding it because the government simply doesn’t have enough funding for that. Hence Smile Train is supporting by providing funding to achieve that research priority.”