Clinical Research for Transfusion Services in Africa Training-CIRIS 2024

3) workshops during which each trainee wrote their own clinical research protocol.

The protocol writing training followed chapter by chapter, a textbook written by Hulley et al. entitled "Designing clinical research" which explains the theoretical bases of clinical research (Hulley & al, 4th edition, 2013). Although it includes elements of epidemiological theory, its approach is mostly practical and "cross-cutting" - which leads from theory to practice.

We enrolled 12 full-time participants from 7 French-speaking countries (Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Tunisia). The professors came from the USA, France, Cameroon and the UCAD. The course budget included funding for travel and accommodation expenses of the professors and trainees.

With intensive mentoring, each trainee wrote one section of his/her protocol during every afternoon workshop session. The topics of the protocols included:

• Motivators and deterrents to repeat blood donation
• A randomized trial of skin disinfection protocols to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination
• Risks factors for hepatitis C virus infection in prospective donors
• A regional assessment of the sensitivity and specificity of TTI screening algorithms
• Effect of HIV infection on the frequency of blood transfusion in sickle cell disease patients
• Indications for blood transfusion in a neonatal care unit
• Impact of clinical status on the efficacy of platelet concentrate transfusion

Assessment of trainee performance was done on the basis of three factors:

i) quality of the finished protocol (50% of the total mark);

ii) quality of the peer review of their colleague’s protocol (25%);

iii) participation during class discussions (25%).

At the end of the course, 11 over 12 trainees had a finished six page protocol which was successfully peer-reviewed by their colleagues during the final oral examination.

Finally, all participants evaluated the workshops and overall training content. Because of the limited budget, the organizers could not prolonged the course more than 9 days as requested by the participants.

We expect that several of the research protocols developed will be implemented and manuscript submitted for publication. Based on the success of this edition, we hope to continue this course in future years for the benefit of transfusion medicine professionals in the region.

We thank the sponsors of this course: who are namely,

ROCHE France ; Association pour la Recherche en Transfusion (France);

The International Society for Blood Transfusion (The Netherlands);

and we also thank the technical support of The University of California, San Francisco; The Safe Blood for Africa Foundation; The FMPOS, UCAD and The Etablissement Français du Sang, Paris (France).

We also acknowledge our deceased colleagues Dr. Steven Hulley of UCSF who developed the original course from which the current course was developed and Prof. Jean Jacques Lefrere who helped to organize the French language version at Institut Pasteur.