Assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing pulse oximetry

Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) is a global strategy, developed by WHO and UNICEF, for the management of common childhood illnesses, including pneumonia, in low-resource settings. IMCI guides a service provider to follow a step-by-step approach in history taking, clinical assessment, classification of the illness and treatment for a sick child. IMCI classifications depend on the clinical assessment skills of service providers and this subjectivity might lead to misclassification and inappropriate referral/treatment.

Hypoxemia (low levels of oxygen in the blood) is one of the strongest predictors of mortality due to pneumonia in children. Pulse oximetry (PO) is a non-invasive method for monitoring a person's blood oxygen level. The integration of PO in existing IMCI services could improve the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis and treatment.

There are several health systems barriers and operational challenges associated with introducing a new technology, like PO, in developing country settings.

The aim of the project is to assess the feasibility, acceptability and operational challenges of introducing PO in IMCI services through routine providers at first-level primary care health facilities in Bangladesh.

The embedded PhD aims to assess the feasibility, acceptability and operational challenges of introducing PO in IMCI services at first-level primary care health facilities in Bangladesh, as well as evaluating its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

For further information, see associated media section.

also https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/respire/phd-studentships/ahmed-ehsanur-rahman for further details