2024 SAEMF Emerging Infectious Disease and Preparedness Grant - $100,000
"MotoMeds: Preventing Child Morbidity and Mortality from Infectious Diseases in Ghana"
In November 2022, the University of Florida (UF) and the Ghana National Ambulance Service (NAS) jointly implemented a pilot study of a nighttime pediatric telemedicine and medication delivery service in Jamestown-Usshertown, an underserved and impoverished community within Accra, Ghana. The telemedicine and medication delivery service, known as MotoMeds Ghana, targets pediatric infectious diseases presenting at night when access to care is most limited. MotoMeds treats the main causes to under-five mortality which are all secondary to infectious diseases: pediatric infectious diseases, including malaria, diarrheal disease, and pneumonia. When a child is sick at night, the caregiver calls MotoMeds. The call is answered by an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), who conducts a telemedicine assessment using clinical decision-support tools. If the child is triaged as severe, the caregiver will be asked to take the child to the nearest hospital by NAS ambulance if needed. For cases in which the child is triaged as mild or moderate, which constitutes the majority, the EMT performs a telemedicine assessment and generates an assessment and treatment plan based on World Health Organization (WHO)-derived guidelines. The care plans may include oral fluids, medications, and clinic follow-up. If the child lives within the catchment area, an EMT travels to the household to conduct an in-person assessment and to provide medications and fluids. This project seeks to further implement and scale MotoMeds to two new sites within Ghana with a higher malaria prevalence and limited access to pediatric care at nighttime.
Recipient
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Torben K. Becker, MD, PhD, MBA
University of Florida Board of Trustees
"MotoMeds: Preventing Child Morbidity and Mortality from Infectious Diseases in Ghana"
Dr. Becker is an associate professor at the University of Florida. He is board-certified in emergency medicine, critical care medicine, and emergency medical services. After obtaining his MD and PhD at the University of Heidelberg Medical School in Germany, Dr. Becker completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Michigan, followed by fellowships in critical care medicine and emergency medical services at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Florida, respectively. He is the executive director – emergency medicine of the University of Florida Health Critical Care Organization. In the department of emergency medicine, he serves as chief of the division of critical care medicine and director of the section of global health.