State of emergency medicine in Rwanda 2015: an innovative trainee and trainer model.

The 1994 Rwandan war and genocide left more than 1 million people dead; millions displaced; and the country's economic, social, and health infrastructure destroyed. Despite remaining one of the poorest countries in the world, Rwanda has made remarkable gains in health, social, and economic development over the last 20 years, but modern emergency care has been slow to progress. Rwanda has recently established the Human Resources for Health program to rapidly build capacity in multiple sectors of its healthcare delivery system, including emergency medicine. This project involves multiple medical and surgical residencies, nursing programs, allied health professional trainings, and hospital administrative support. A real strength of the program is that trainers work with international faculty at Rwanda's referral hospital, but also as emergency medicine specialty trainers when returning to their respective district hospitals. Rwanda's first emergency medicine trainees are playing a unique and important role in the implementation of emergency care systems and education in the country's district hospitals. While there has been early vital progress in building emergency medicine's foundations in Rwanda, there remains much work to be done. This will be accomplished with careful planning and strong commitment from the country's healthcare and emergency medicine leaders.

Reliability and construct validity of three health-related self-report scales in HIV-positive adults in rural Rwanda.

Depression, low health-related quality of life, and low perceived social support have been shown to predict poor health outcomes, including HIV-related outcomes. Mental health morbidity and HIV are important public health concerns in Rwanda, where approximately half of the current population is estimated to have survived the genocide and 3% is living with HIV. We examined the reliability and construct validity of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-15 (HSCL-15), the Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey (MOS-HIV), and the Duke/UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire (DUFSSQ), which were used to assess depression, health-related quality of life, and perceived social support, respectively, among HIV-infected adults in rural Rwanda. We also studied whether scale reliability differed by gender, literacy status, or antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery strategy. The Kinyarwanda versions of the HSCL-15, MOS-HIV, and DUFSSQ performed well in the study population. Reliability was favorable (Cronbach's alpha coefficients ≥0.75 or above) for the scales overall and across subgroups of gender, literacy, and mode of ART delivery. The scales also demonstrated good convergent, discriminant, and known-group validity.

Ultrasound assessment of severe dehydration in children with diarrhea and vomiting.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the test characteristics for two different ultrasound (US) measures of severe dehydration in children (aorta to inferior vena cava [IVC] ratio and IVC inspiratory collapse) and one clinical measure of severe dehydration (the World Health Organization [WHO] dehydration scale). METHODS: The authors enrolled a prospective cohort of children presenting with diarrhea and/or vomiting to three rural Rwandan hospitals. Children were assessed clinically using the WHO scale and then underwent US of the IVC by a second clinician. All children were weighed on admission and then fluid-resuscitated according to standard hospital protocols. A percent weight change between admission and discharge of greater than 10% was considered the criterion standard for severe dehydration. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were created for each of the three tests of severe dehydration compared to the criterion standard. RESULTS: Children ranged in age from 1 month to 10 years; 29% of the children had severe dehydration according to the criterion standard. Of the three different measures of dehydration tested, only US assessment of the aorta/IVC ratio had an area under the ROC curve statistically different from the reference line. At its best cut-point, the aorta/IVC ratio had a sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 59%, compared with 93% and 35% for IVC inspiratory collapse and 73% and 43% for the WHO scale. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound of the aorta/IVC ratio can be used to identify severe dehydration in children presenting with acute diarrhea and may be helpful in guiding clinical management.

Improving quality in resource poor settings: observational study from rural Rwanda.

PROBLEM: Hospitals in rural Africa, such as in Rwanda, often lack electricity, supplies, and staff. In our setting, basic care processes, such monitoring vital signs, giving drugs, and laboratory testing, were performed unreliably, resulting in delays in treatment owing to lack of information needed for clinical decision making. DESIGN: Simple quality improvement tools, including plan-do-study-act cycles and process maps, were used to improve system level processes in a stepwise fashion; resources were augmented where necessary. SETTING: 50 bed district hospital in rural Rwanda. MEASUREMENT OF IMPROVEMENT: Three key indicators (percentage of vital signs taken by 9 am, drugs given as prescribed, and laboratory tests performed and documented) were tracked daily. Data were collected from a random sample of 25 charts from six inpatient wards. STRATEGY FOR CHANGE: Our intervention had two components: staff education on quality improvement and routine care processes, and stepwise implementation of system level interventions. Real time performance data were reported to staff daily, with a goal of 95% performance for each indicator within two weeks. A Rwandan quality improvement team was trained to run the hospital's quality improvement initiatives. EFFECTS OF CHANGES: Within two weeks, all indicators achieved the 95% goal. The data for the three objectives were analysed by using time series analysis. Progress was compared against time by using run chart rules for statistical significance of improvement, showing significant improvement for all indicators. Doctors and nurses subjectively reported improved patient care and higher staff morale. LESSONS LEARNT: Four lessons are highlighted: making data visible and using them to inform subsequent interventions can promote change in resource poor settings; improvements can be made in advance of resource inputs, but sustained change in resource poor settings requires additional resources; local leadership is essential for success; and early successes were crucial for encouraging staff and motivating buy-in.