First annual meeting - held in Zomba, Malawi

From November 23rd to November 25th, the first annual meeting for the IMPALA project took place in Zomba and Blantyre.The EDCTP-funded project brought together partners from TRUE, KUHeS, MUBAS, GOAL 3, NeLL and AIGHD. They were virtually joined by partners from ICL and the VU University. The consortium discussed the progress that has been made in developing an affordable, durable and user-friendly monitoring system for hospitalized children in low-resource settings.  Together they made steps towards finalizing the protocols for ethical clearance and the data management plan. They also discussed the steps to be taken for regulatory approval by the Ministry of Health. The Scientific Advisory Board and the Stakeholder Steering Committee provided invaluable feedback to the consortium for the development of the monitoring device.

In addition to presentations on the progress of the project, the partners also worked together in team-building challenges by building a tower from spaghetti and visited the Zomba Hospital and Mercy James Hospital where the monitoring device will be tested. The consortium also welcomed the three new PhD students, who will be starting their fellowships in Big Data, Social Science and Bio-medicine shortly. With this meeting, the building blocks were set for a fruitful collaboration in the coming years.