The emissary from the University of Florida stayed at CRID from the 25th to 27th February 2025 in context of the International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR) project.
Tuesday 25th February 2025. Samuel White, Research assistant in Pr. Rhoel Dinglasan’s laboratory at the University of Florida, was hosted by CRID. He was welcomed by Prof. Charles Wondji, Co-Principal Investigator of ICEMR project and PI at CRID. CRID’s team working on the project comprises: Dr Elanga Emmanuel and Dr Basile Kamgang as co-Investigators, alongside Dr Glwadys Cheteug and Dr Daniel Nguiffo, Postdoctoral research assistants. For this first day, Samuel White focused on training CRID’s team on the use of REDCap, a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. Together, they explored the software laying emphasis on how to collect, save and send data to the server. Furthermore, they reviewed and adjusted the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) to be used in implementing the project in hospitals, to suit Cameroonian context.
The agenda for Day-2 consisted in visiting hospitals where patients will be enrolled for malaria cases as part of the project. With CRID’s team working on the project, Samuel White toured the Biyem-Assi district hospital, the Cité Verte hospital and the Catholic health centre of Nkol-Eton. There, they had the opportunity to meet clinic staff and share contact details. In additiion, they analysed and transcribed weekly case accounts for malaria obtained from past records of the different health centres. The visit also gave them the opportunity to find suitable areas in clinics for data collection, and discuss the secure storage of paper data collection forms, as well as the study tablet
Samuel White in CRID’s insectary
For the last day of his stay, the emissary from the University of Florida visited CRID’s laboratories and insectary. Samuel was amazed at the state-of-the-art equipment he saw. Visiting an insectary and observing live mosquitoes was a first experience for him. As he ended his training and clinic visit, he said he was proud of having achieved all the objectives of his stay. The master’s in public health will remember CRID as being a place of wonderful collaboration.
For recall, ICEMR is a project funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH), with Principal Investigator Rhoel Dinglasan PhD MPH.
