Dr Jemma Hawkins and Prof Graham Moore discuss a
productive and rewarding research trip
In June this year, we made our first trip to Peru as part of our work with an international team of collaborators on a four-year project focused on improving outcomes for people with dementia, and their caregivers, in Peru. The IMPACT Salud study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) and is led by Imperial College London and the CRONICAS centre within Universidad Peruana Cayetona Heredia (UPCH) in Lima. It consists of five integrated work packages all co-led by a Peruvian and UK-based researcher, we are co-leading one of these work packages each.
The trip was a great opportunity to spend in-person time with our established partners as well as relatively new colleagues, who we have mostly interacted with in online meetings since planning for this project began during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the visit we participated in whole-team and individual work package meetings, as well as our annual advisory board meeting. In addition, several events were held to officially launch the project and deliver training opportunities to health care workers and caregivers, in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Health (MINSA). As part of this, Jemma participated in a panel discussion exploring approaches to improving global health equity.
Our involvement in this large project centres around drawing on DECIPHer-led methodological frameworks to understand how intervention models from high income contexts (the United States) can be adapted and transferred to the very different health and social care systems in Peru. The study is exploring this within four regions of Peru which vary in their geographical and demographic contexts. Hence, this visit provided useful opportunities for us to understand the application of methods developed in Wales to new international contexts. Both the topic, of dementia, and the Peruvian context are completely new areas of research for both of us. So we learned a huge amount from our hosts about both of these during our time in Peru.
The project is in its second year of four and we look forward to more visits in both directions to share learnings and expertise and maximise the impact of the important research the team is undertaking.
You can keep up to date with project information here: https://x.com/ImpactSalud.