Developing Capacity to Improve Care Transitions for Injury Patients in Tanzania

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Abstract: Injuries are a global health crisis annually causing 6 million deaths and over 650 million people worldwide living with disabilities. Injuries have a particular impact on people between 5 and 44 years of age and are the leading cause of disability adjusted life years lost in low and middle income settings. Strategies to assist newly injury patients in their transition from the acute setting to the community reduce mortality and morbidity in high income settings. Comprehensive and evidence based transition of care strategies are not currently used in most low income settings due to a myriad of limitations. Over 2000 patients annually are seen at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) for acute injuries of which 59% are admitted for an average length of stay of 10 days. Upon discharge from an acute injury hospitalization, adult injury patients have a complex array of complications across the ‘five domains’ of healthcare management which include function, mental health, substance abuse, pain, and comorbidities (which includes HIV). In high income countries, up to 79% of injury patients suffer complications in one of these domains post hospitalization. While data is lacking, preliminary data in the region suggests that HIV is more common in the injury population than the general public and could worsen outcomes. Managing the health and social needs of an adult injury patient post hospitalization requires a multidisciplinary team to address each of these domains. The goal of this important project is to build capacity in order to improve the health and quality of life for injury patients, particularly focusing on our five health domains, by (1) understanding and addressing the care transition needs (including any HIV related needs), and (2) creating a resource-appropriate comprehensive care transitions strategy. Ultimately, we will build the research capacity to qualitatively develop and feasibly test this intervention. By the conclusion of this project, we will have created a team of local and international health system clinical researchers, a high quality injury registry, a descriptive understanding of the rates of known and newly diagnosed HIV as well as the complications HIV patients suffer during acute injuries, and an piloted evidence-based and resource-appropriate care transition strategy feasible for implementation in a fully powered clinical trial. There is tremendous potential for this research to strengthen care pathways at KCMC for injury patients with and without HIV, build capacity for pragmatic stakeholder-engaged clinical trials, and improve patient and family outcomes.