A Bit About Me
Lillian (nurse) checks Gertrude's blood pressure and blood sugar
Gorey Malawi Health Partnership Team, Mzuzu, Malawi, March 2017
Our Healthcare Projects
In 2015, Joe Gallagher (https://people.ucd.ie/jgallagher) and Chris Watson (https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/chris-watson) founded the BIOTOPE (BIOmarkers TO diagnose PnEumonia) project in Mzuzu, Northern Malawi with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is designed to improve the care and treatment of childhood pneumonia, which is the biggest global cause of death in children under five years.*
In Malawi, vaccinations and better treatments for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis mean that people are living longer. This brings new health problems, called “Non-Communicable Diseases or NCDs”, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and lung disease. Our COMPASS (CollabOrative Medicines oPtimisAtion ServiceS) project supports care of NCDs, especially in rural communities.*
*Gallagher J, Chisale M, Das S, Drew RJ, Glezeva N, Wildes DM, De Gascun C, Wu TJ, Ledwidge M, Watson C Aetiology and severity of childhood pneumonia in primary care in Malawi: a cohort study; BIOTOPE team. BMJ Open. 2021 Jul 29;11(7):e046633. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046633 Glezeva N, Chisale M, McDonald K, Ledwidge M, Gallagher J, Watson CJ. Diabetes and complications of the heart in Sub-Saharan Africa: An urgent need for improved awareness, diagnostics and management. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2018 Mar;137:10-19. doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2017.12.019 Gwonde H, O'Connor R, Hunt M, Harrington P, Gallagher J, Ledwidge M. Sustainable protocol-based management of hypertension in one institution in northern Malawi. Rural Remote Health 2023 Jan;23(1):7876. doi: 10.22605/RRH7876. Epub 2023 Jan 10. The late Charles Handy (1932-2024) was a social philosopher and founder of the Sloan Programme at the London Business School (https://thinkers50.com/biographies/charles-handy/)
In 2022, following discussions with the social philosopher, Charles Handy,* we began a project to develop accessible, affordable training in “Family Medicine” and “Family Pharmacy” in rural Malawi.
This work now involves a wide range of people, professionals and institutions in Ireland and Malawi: the Gorey Malawi Health Partnership, The BIOTOPE Team, Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Global Health Network, the Ministry of Health in Malawi and the World Health Organisation.
Family Healthcare
Project Timeline
2015
2017
2022
2025
Joe Gallagher and Chris Watson founded the BIOTOPE (BIOmarkers TO diagnose PnEumonia) project in Mzuzu, Northern Malawi with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is designed to improve care and treatment of childhood pneumonia, which is the biggest global cause of death in children under five years.
The Gorey Malawi Health Partnership was formed to provide education, support and medications for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, rheumatic heart disease and heart failure.
The COMPASS (CollabOrative Medicines oPtimisAtion ServiceS) project to understand and support more collaborative care of Non-Communicable-Diseases and also to create sustainable medicines supply in our clinic, which is mostly attended by women
Our work to try prevent heart failure in Ireland is now focused on trying to understand why older women appear to have stiffer hearts and blood vessels than men. Heart disease in Malawi appears to be worse, as women there live almost 20 years less than women in Ireland. The Family Medicine and Family Pharmacy projects are designed to provide sustainable solutions.
In the hospital where BIOTOPE was based, children occasionally died during the rainy season from asthma because of lack of simple medicines, such as inhalers. Colleagues with expertise in Respiratory Medicine in Ireland were surprised to learn that asthma was such a significant problem in Malawi, as they believed asthma to be mainly an illness of developed countries, citing the “hygiene hypothesis” as an explanation. The more often we returned to Malawi, the more we realised that there was an even bigger challenge with older adults, particularly women, who suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart failure
In Malawi, high vaccination rates and better treatments for HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis mean that people i are living longer. However, there was a new health problem after decades fighting infectious diseases. This new problem was “Non Communicable Disease”, also known as chronic disease.
It is surprising to many that diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity are unusually common amongst women in Malawi, as it a country that regularly experiences food shortages and suffered its last famine only twenty years ago. This phenomenon has been described as the “double burden of malnutrition”. Research from our COMPASS Medicine project shows that this is proving to be a recipe for failing hearts, especially because of the limited access to healthcare and medicines
Our Team in Malawi.
Our project in Malawi is led by Prof Balwani Chingatichifwe Mbakaya (PhD, MPH), a Public Health Specialist with a focus in Field Epidemiology. He currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of Livingstonia, Malawi. In addition, he holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mzuzu University and is a Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at University College Dublin, Ireland. Balwani plays a key leadership role in academic governance at the University of Livingstonia, where he chairs both the Postgraduate Committee and the University Research and Ethics Committee (UNILIAREC/IRB). His research interests lie primarily in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, with particular emphasis on the use of biomarkers to diagnose pneumonia (BIOTOPE), hand hygiene interventions aimed at reducing diarrhoeal and respiratory infections, quality of care, disease prevention and control, primary health care, and health-promoting schools. For more details: ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4705-9064
In 2023, Prof Mbakaya carried out a needs-assessment amongst 400 families near the village of Chigwere, Northern Malawi. This was the foundation for a new curriculum in “Family Medicine and Family Pharmacy” which is being developed in the University of Livingstonia. These educational programmes aim to meet the needs of families in rural primary care, where 90% of people in Malawi live.
