Early-career healthcare researchers were urged to collaborate with mentors and fellow researchers to enhance the overall quality of evidence-based healthcare, during the 2nd AKU Early-Career Health Researchers’ Symposium in Nairobi.
The symposium Towards Better Health: Celebrating Rising Researchers provided an avenue for researchers, students and professionals to present their findings to a wide audience of local policymakers and healthcare managers in the region. Over 100 participants attended with presentations from researchers from nine universities and research institutions.
In his welcoming remarks, Professor William Macharia, associate dean for research at AKU, highlighted the need for institutions of higher learning to provide appropriate environments in which early career researchers can be nurtured and mentored by more seasoned colleagues. He went on to commend institutions that invest in resources to give early-career researchers the opportunity to develop and strengthen their research knowledge and skills.
Pointing out that institutions that do research, both higher learning and research institutes, cannot afford to remain ivory towers of knowledge, Professor Macharia urged institutions to work closely with policymakers to ensure that their research is utilised and understood.
Professor Robert Armstrong, founding dean of AKU’s Medical College observed that health researchers must always ask questions about what can be done to improve the health of the population and how it can be done better.
“This continuous questioning of how we can improve the quality of care we provide and the translation of those questions into structured research studies that meet high scientific and ethical rigour is what we as a university and healthcare delivery system are here to support,” he said.
29 abstracts, which included oral and poster presentations were presented by early career researchers from nine universities and research institutions with Ms Martha Luka (KEMRI-Wellcome Trust) and Ms Brenda Oseno (KEMRI-Wellcome Trust & Egerton University) taking home the top prizes for oral and poster presentations respectively.
Early-career healthcare researchers were urged to collaborate with mentors and fellow researchers to enhance the overall quality of evidence-based healthcare, during the 2nd AKU Early-Career Health Researchers’ Symposium in Nairobi.
The symposium Towards Better Health: Celebrating Rising Researchers provided an avenue for researchers, students and professionals to present their findings to a wide audience of local policymakers and healthcare managers in the region. Over 100 participants attended with presentations from researchers from nine universities and research institutions.
In his welcoming remarks, Professor William Macharia, associate dean for research at AKU, highlighted the need for institutions of higher learning to provide appropriate environments in which early career researchers can be nurtured and mentored by more seasoned colleagues. He went on to commend institutions that invest in resources to give early-career researchers the opportunity to develop and strengthen their research knowledge and skills.
Pointing out that institutions that do research, both higher learning and research institutes, cannot afford to remain ivory towers of knowledge, Professor Macharia urged institutions to work closely with policymakers to ensure that their research is utilised and understood.
Professor Robert Armstrong, founding dean of AKU’s Medical College observed that health researchers must always ask questions about what can be done to improve the health of the population and how it can be done better.
“This continuous questioning of how we can improve the quality of care we provide and the translation of those questions into structured research studies that meet high scientific and ethical rigour is what we as a university and healthcare delivery system are here to support,” he said.
29 abstracts, which included oral and poster presentations were presented by early career researchers from nine universities and research institutions with Ms Martha Luka (KEMRI-Wellcome Trust) and Ms Brenda Oseno (KEMRI-Wellcome Trust & Egerton University) taking home the top prizes for oral and poster presentations respectively.
