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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 25, No 5, September/October 2014
250
AFRICA
Conference Report
The way forward for clinical research in Cameroon:
First scientific and research day in Douala, 2014
Abstract
There is a huge need for health research
to support contextually relevant health
service and policy solutions to better the
health of populations in sub-Saharan
Africa. This need contrasts with the
very timid engagement of healthcare
practitioners in research in the region.
It is against this background that the
Douala General Hospital (a tertiary-
care hospital in Cameroon), under the
stewardship of its chief executive officer,
organised the first annual scientific and
research day in October 2014. This
maiden event saw the participation of
local research leaders and the eminent
director of the South African Hatter
Institute for Cardiovascular Research in
Africa, who co-chaired the event. The
aim was to educate students, clinicians
and junior researchers on the importance
of clinical research and evidence-based
medicine around the leading theme of
the event: action for clinical research and
good medical practice.
Several abstracts were presented,
covering various aspects of medicine,
including cardiology, rheumatology,
paediatrics, pulmonology, HIV medicine,
and obstetrics and gynaecology, together
with key lectures on cardiac disease
and pregnancy, and plenary sessions on
research methodology, scientific writing
and publishing. It is hoped that this
event will enhance clinical research and
the dissemination of research findings to
improve evidence-based clinical practice
in the country.
Background
Clinical research in sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) is very daunting due to
the combined effects of many factors,
including the timidity for, or lack of
interest of clinicians in research, the
absence of adequate infrastructure for
the conduct of clinical and experimental
research, a structured health system
that is not conducive to research, as
well as funding constraints.
1
In order
to foster good clinical practice and
evidence-based medicine, executives of
the Douala General Hospital (DGH),
which is a referral hospital for Cameroon
and central Africa, initiated the annual
research and scientific day and organised
the maiden event on 2 October 2014.
The technical organisation was done
by experts from the Clinical Research
Education, Networking and Consultancy
(CRENC), and the Cameroon Cardiac
Society, and they were advised by the
Pan-African Society of Cardiology.
The main theme of this conference
was ‘action for clinical research and
good medical practice’. This event
brought together over 200 participants,
including
general
practitioners,
surgeons, obstetricians, cardiologists,
endocrinologists, specialist physicians
in training, undergraduate medical
students and medical researchers. It
was co-chaired by Prof Karen Sliwa-
Hahnle, director of the Hatter Institute
for Cardiovascular Research in Africa
(HICRA), University of Cape Town,
South Africa, who is also director of
the Soweto Cardiovascular Research
Unit, University of Witwatersrand,
South Africa. As a clinical cardiologist
and a renowned clincal researcher,
her participation was in line with her
vision, plans and commitment for health
research in Africa, as reflected in this
quote from her on that day: ‘We know the
major problems of cardiovascular disease
on the continent. What we need are the
solutions, not further documentation of
the problems of hypertension, obesity
and related lifestyle factors’.
There is no doubt that Prof Sliwa-
Hahnle’s presence in Cameroon on this
occasion gave an additional flavour to the
event.
2
The conference was enlightening,
with a session for abstract presentations
(orally and by poster), followed by
plenary sessions on cardiac disease and
pregnancy, research methodology, ethics
and research in Cameroon, and the art
and impact of scientific writing and
publishing. Finally, awards were given for
the best abstracts.
Opening ceremony and abstracts
session
The opening ceremony was chaired by
Prof Henry Luma, medical director of
DGH, who welcomed all participants
and called upon them to contribute to
improvement in research in Cameroon.
Then followed the abstract presentations
on various topics, including hypertension,
prediction algorithms, antibiotic use,
heart failure, outcomes of newborns,
adherence to antiretroviral medication,
osteoarthritis and the epidemiology of
thunderclap headaches.
Dr Tianyi Tianyi (Cameroon)
presented a community-based study on
the association of hypertension with
cognitive impairment among elders in
the rural area of Batibo in the north-
west region of Cameroon. A third of
older people in the area were cognitively
impaired, with those with hypertension
being significantlymore affected andmore
likely to lose their personal independence.
Dr Pefura-Yone, a pulmonologist
and lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine
in Yaounde, elaborated on the need for
rules for clinical prediction to improve
the diagnosis of asthma, in the context
of high variability of existing clinical
diagnostic criteria for asthma across
regions. Using a community-based
sample of 1 681 participants (13.1% with
asthma), he developed a simple score
based on the principal symptoms, with
acceptable performance in predicting the
presence of asthma.
Dr Mbam Leonard, a physician in
Buea (south-west region of Cameroon),
discussed the irrational use and
prescription of antibiotics as well as
polypharmacy in Buea. In his study,