Clinical Management of COVID-19 in resource-limited settings

Identifying key unanswered research questions to improve clinical management of COVID-19 in low-resource settings.

Developing clinical management standards adapted to different settings and contexts.

Developing or sharing existing clinical guidelines adapted to the management of severe patients in low-resource settings.

Resources

Selected and recommended by the working group

Browse all resources selected by the coalition’s topic-specific groups

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Working group members

Working Group Co-Chair

Diptesh completed his Clinical Fellowship in Critical Care at the University of Toronto Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care and St. Michael’s Hospital. Currently, he is working as ICU Coordinator at Nepal Mediciti Hospital. Diptesh has done some significant work in the field of critical care research in Nepal to improve critical care education, the quality of patient care and to develop research projects and infrastructure in order to build an understanding of critical care needs and establish Nepal as an important contributor to research within the global critical care community.

To achieve these goals, Diptesh, along with his colleagues has established the Nepal Intensive Care Research Foundation, which in collaboration with Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) and CRITICAL CARE ASIA has implemented a hospital-based ICU Registry in Nepal. Diptesh is the National Coordinator for Nepal ICU Registry.

Diptesh has been awarded an Honorary Physician position in Critical Care at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand.

Diptesh is working as Principal Investigator for REMAP-CAP Trial in Nepal. The trial has been embedded in the new ICU registry platform and currently is being conducted in four ICUs in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a member of the anticoagulation domain working group of REMAP-CAP and REMAP-CAP CCA Regional Coordination Committee.

Working Group Member

Tim Baker is a Critical Care Physician and Researcher. He is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and has positions at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar, Ifakara Health Institute, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is advising the WHO in Tanzania and has recently completed a consultancy for the Wellcome Trust. Tim’s interest is in evaluating and improving global emergency and critical care services and health systems.

Working Group Member

Professor and HOD Critical Care Medicine, Ziauddin University; Secretary, Faculty of Critical Care Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan; CEO South East Asian Research & Education in Critical Care Health (SEARCH); Leading Pakistan Registry of Intensive Care (PRICE)

Working Group Co-Chair

Dr Bharath Kumar Tirupakuzhi Vijayaraghavan is a Critical Care Physician based in Chennai, India. He leads the Indian Registry of IntenSive care (IRIS), a network of ICUs across India and through IRIS, is a member of the ISARIC coalition. In addition, he serves on the Research Committee of the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine. He is also an Honorary Senior Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi, India. Bharath Kumar leads a number of COVID and non-COVID research projects in resource-limited settings and is focused on epidemiology and clinical trials. Specific to COVID-19, he is the PI for a trial of HCQ prophylaxis for HCWs (HOPE trial) and is an International Steering Committee member for the COVID-Steroid 2 trial, which is comparing low vs. high dose Dexamethasone for critically ill patients with COVID-19. In addition, he serves on the International WHO respiratory support panel which focuses on trials of respiratory support for critically ill COVID-19 patients. He was also the site investigator for the WHO-led SOLIDARITY trial of repurposed therapies for COVID-19.

Working Group Member

Graduated from University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (UMP HCMC) in 1985, and became an infectious diseases specialist in 1989. I gained an MSc from UMP HCMC in 1998, and an MSc from Flinders University in South Australia in 2001. I have worked with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD) since 1990, promoted to the Head of Tetanus ICU (1991), and served as Vice-Director from 2006 – 2016. Recognised internationally, I was named an Australian Alumni Ambassador – one of only 12 selected by the Australian Government from across the global network of more than 2.5 million alumni. I was also awarded a 2017 Flinders University Convocational Medal acknowledging my contribution, leadership in my field, and the advancement of professional practice in the research and treatment of tropical diseases. My clinical research interests are wide-ranging, including: clinical research of vaccine-preventable, emerging infectious and also critically ill patients of infectious diseases such as tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis, rabies, influenza, dengue, sepsis, and COVID-19. I am also interested in long term functional improvement of severe patients by rehabilitation and innovation programs. Because of vast experience in clinical research, I am able to organize clinical trials from the beginning, monitor clinical trials, train international and local guidelines, write academic guidelines of infectious diseases, train Good Clinical Practice (GCP), and work in the field with communities (as consultant or trainer).

Working Group Member

Senior clinical lecturer in critical care medicine currently based in Malawi. Leads on COVID-19 related clinical research at Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust including implementation of the ISARIC Clinical Characterisation Protocol. Operational lead for a new high dependency unit opened in anticipation of COVID at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre. https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/about/people/dr-ben-morton.

Working Group Member

I am a consultant ID Physician and chief of ID at Sheikh Shakbhout Medical City, Abu Dhabi. I used to work in the UK at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. I chair the African Sepsis Alliance and am a member of the Global Sepsis Alliance Executive Team. I have an interest in sepsis improvement and clinical leadership. I led our hospital COVID-19 Taskforce during our surge.

Working Group Member

Hendry R. Sawe is an emergency physician and the current Head of Emergency Medicine Department at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). He also serves as the departmental Research and Residency program director. Dr Sawe is also an adjunct Assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Carolinas Health Care system, in Charlotte USA.

His research interests include Trauma management, Critical care, medical education, and Emergency care systems development.

He is also an associate editor for both Tanzania Medical Journal and African Journal He is also an associate editor for both Tanzania Medical Journal and African Journal of Emergency Medicine, serves as president of the Emergency Medicine Association of Tanzania (EMAT), the national professional association charged with disseminating emergency care in Tanzania, and a vice-president of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM).

Working Group Member

Marcus Schultz is a professor of Intensive Care Medicine with over 25 years of experience; he’s the founder of the ‘Protective VEntilation Network’, and the PI of numerous randomized clinical trials and observational studies of invasive ventilation. He is one of the founders of CRIT CARE ASIA, a network of intensive care units across Southeast Asia.

Working Group Member

Doctor Chaisith Sivakorn holds a Doctoral in Medicine and Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine and Critical Care Medicine from Mahidol University, Bangkok Thailand. In September 2019 he was apppointed as medical instructor and pulmonary and critical Care physician at the Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. His main research interests include (i) critical care in Tropical Diseases e.g. Dengue, Melioidosis, Malaria, Leptospirosis, Rickettsiosis; (ii) respiratory Infections e.g. Tuberculosis, Influenza, Pneumonia, COVID-19; (iii) and Thai traditional medicine.

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We are looking for dedicated individuals and institutions who are eager to contribute their expertise and commitment to fast-track research in infectious diseases with potential for epidemics and pandemics, as well as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), specific to low-resource settings.

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