Moving Forward

In only one week of working, the students have quickly realized the many areas of improvement which make the delivery of healthcare inefficient here in Kenya. We are currently formulating a wide variety of research projects which will hopefully bolster the delivery of care in a variety of ways. Through the generosity of Eli Lilly, we have received thousands of dollars worth of free medication including psychiatric drugs, insulin, and chemotherapeutics. However, we have never really checked to see the impact of these medications which were previously unavailable in Kenya. We are currently developing proposals to help retrospectively capture the impact these medications have had on patient care and also to help bolster our ability to acquire future donations to manage not only HIV but the whole constellation of maladies patients face. The Kenyan staff has been incredibly helpful in this process and the pace at which we are able to gather this information is truly remarkable. We are also beginning to consider ideas to optimize the way we manage patients with chronic diseases. For true long-term development we must use the increased funding opportunities for resource poor settings because of the HIV epidemic as a catapult to improve all aspects of healthcare management from chronic diseases to life threatening acute illnesses.