Much stress in the first 1000 days, from pregnancy to 2 years, can be harmful for life. HEALS Applied aims to detect such stress in young children at an early stage, and where necessary support the parents. HEALS Applied combines knowledge about co-creation and stress with the excellent Dutch preventive care during pregnancy and at well-child care, and develops new methods for early detection of harmful stress. HEALS Applied thus contributes to healthy and safe growing up of children, and provides new knowledge about stress; about sensors and biomarkers; about better support for parents; and about application in preventive care.

Heart failure poses a large burden on patients and healthcare, largely because heart failure patients have low fitness and require frequent hospitalisation for close monitoring. In CardiacCare@Home, researchers work together with patients, doctors, industry, and others to develop technology for home-based monitoring of cardiac function and rehabilitation. This approach facilitates early detection of worsening of cardiac function, which allows doctors to rapidly alter treatment and prevent hospitalisation. Moreover, home-based rehabilitation will improve patients’ fitness levels. Technological innovations will facilitate a new care path that improves patients’ quality of life and lower socio-economic costs, and lower burden for hospital staff.

De beoogde uitkomst van dit project is een met studenten, patiënten en opleiders ontwikkelde en geëvalueerde innovatieve leerlijn ‘Artsen met karakter’ die als een rode draad door het hele Master-curriculum loopt. Deze leerlijn helpt geneeskundestudenten zich te ontwikkelen tot artsen die anderen goed doen en zelf floreren. Het huidige Master-curriculum Geneeskunde bereidt studenten onvoldoende voor op de uitdagingen waar ze als arts van de nabije toekomst voor gesteld worden: - persoonsgerichte zorg bieden in samenspraak met patiënten, - in elke situatie opnieuw medisch-deskundige en ethisch verantwoorde beslissingen nemen, - ondanks de vaak zware werkomstandigheden, protocollisering en bureaucratisering, plezier houden in het werk. Om deze uitdagingen het hoofd te kunnen bieden zouden studenten een robuuste persoonlijke en professionele identiteit moeten ontwikkelen. Dit project ontwikkelt een leerlijn professionaliteit voor coassistenten die gericht is op karakterontwikkeling door deugdvorming. Deugdethiek – teruggaand op Aristoteles – wordt in literatuur over professionaliteit en medische ethiek beschouwd als een essentiële vorm van persoonlijke en professionele identiteitsontwikkeling. Tot nu toe wordt ze echter niet expliciet en beredeneerd tijdens de coschappen ingezet. Om zich kritisch-constructief te kunnen verhouden tot rolmodellen en het verborgen curriculum, gaan studenten regelmatig in dialoog met patiënten over ‘dat wat deugd doet’, wisselen ze ervaringsverhalen uit, en reflecteren ze op de betekenis daarvan. Met behulp van uiteenlopende werkvormen, voor/na/gedurende de klinische episoden, nemen studenten zelf de regie bij hun karakterontwikkeling en componeren ze een autobiografisch reisverhaal. Daarbij wordt ook geput uit bronnenmateriaal uit beeldende kunst, literatuur en film. Zo wordt Bildungsgewijs gewerkt aan persoonlijke en professionele identiteit.

Over the past decade The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has funded top researchers at universities and institutes internationally to conduct cutting-edge research in the international arena and to stimulate research talent. Recently, NWO has funded eight research coalitions in Africa to generate much needed evidence around health systems in Africa. To maximize the impact of the knowledge generated on health systems policy and practice in low and middle income countries (LMICs), Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH) proposes to foster, nurture and facilitate a health systems related Knowledge Translation Network (KTN). This will be done by: * Hosting a shared platform for KT (Knowledge Translation) across the eight coalitions. * Building KT capacity among the eight coalitions and relevant stakeholders. * Supporting KT activities across the network by providing technical support and competitive KT targets small grants. * Assessing/evaluating the KT effects across the network. * Promoting collaborations and KT best practices sharing across network and others global partners. Potential KT strategies will be derived from stakeholder analyses and engagement activities of the eight coalitions. These will inform the appropriate packaging of relevant evidence for different audiences and shall involve obtaining the KT capacity gaps of the eight coalitions, drawing practice and policy implications from the current research findings, identifying key messages from the research for translation and adapting these messages to existing synthesized evidence. Relying on MakSPHs proven health systems and KT expertise, the priority areas being implemented by the eight coalitions shall be categorized under four thematic areas; service delivery (maternal newborn and child health (MNCH), Health Financing (insurance initiatives), medical supplies and technologies (laboratories) and governance (accountability and community initiatives). An advisory group comprising of the coalition partners (principal investigators) shall complement the decision making function of the Network Secretariat. A memorandum of understanding will be signed by the PIs. After the initial three years the network will expand to include KT activities geared towards other health systems subthemes such as health information systems and medical supplies and logistics. MakSPH shall link the network to a hub of knowledge platforms within Africa and globally including; Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EViPNet) Africa, Regional East African Community Health (REACH) Policy Initiative Project, Supporting the Use of Research Evidence (SURE), Zambia Forum for Health Research (ZAMFOHR) and theSouth African Cochrane Centre (SACC). website: http://www.ktnetafrica.net