Congratulations to Juan C. Puyana, MD and Pratap Kumar, MD, MPhil, PhD (Strathmore University), who will receive grant funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for the project “BLOODSAFE – Pathways of Innovation in Blood Transfusion Systems in Kenya (PITS Kenya).” Optimizing blood transfusion services in lower middle income countries is a major health challenge and a social imperative, as postpartum hemorrhage, malarial anemia, sickle cell disease, and all other forms of acute hemorrhage claim millions of lives each year across the world. For this new project, Drs. Kumar and Puyana assembled an international, multidisciplinary team to explore gaps and identify solutions across the blood continuum in a diverse set of sociopolitical contexts within Kenya’s current health setting. They seek to implement supply chain solutions and innovative-disruptive techniques aimed at ensuring sustainability and generalizable to similar contexts within the Sub-Saharan subcontinent.
The grant will be funded through NHLBI’s UG3/H3 mechanism and will support a consortium with the nations of Ghana and Malawi. This is a unique achievement for the Office of Global Health/Surgery at Pitt, as the results from this network are poised to have a long term impact on blood safety for sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.