IMPACT TB partners assemble in Kathmandu for annual meeting

Posted on: July 05, 2019

With 6 months remaining on the IMPACT-TB project, we held our final consortium meeting on 2nd & 3rd  July 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal to review progress made since our late meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 12 months ago and also to discuss plans for data analysis and dissemination. The meeting was a rare opportunity to bring IMPACT team members together across all our diverse disciplines to exchange ideas and identify ways we can further contribute to the efforts to end TB.

Delegates from all IMPACT TB partner organisations attended the meeting, namely the Birat Nepal Medical Trust (BNMT) in Nepal (our hosts), the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) from the UK, Friends for International Tuberculosis Relief (FIT) from Vietnam, Karolinska Institutet (KI) from Sweden and Koninklijke Nederlandse Chemische Vereniging (KNCV) from the Netherlands. IMPACT TB were also honoured to welcome senior delegates from the National TB Centre in Nepal (nepalntp.gov.np).

On Day 1, following a warm welcome to Kathmandu from the Chairman of the Board at BNMT Nepal, Mahesh Sharma, delegates were given updates on the progress of Active Case Finding in both Vietnam & Nepal by Luan Vo of FIT and Raghu Dhital of BNMT. This was then followed by a session on Health System & Patient Costings led by Dr Noemia Siqueira, Ms Rachel Forse and Ms Kritika Dixit. Later, the Modelling team from LSTM gave us an insight into the work that they have been doing to estimate impact of this intervention using different mathematical models.

On day 2, discussions moved on to social protection and the team from the Karolinska Institute gave us an update on policy dialogue plans and the SPARKS network, presented by Professor Knut Lonnroth, Kerri Viney and Olivia Biermann. This was followed by the team at KNCV giving an update on the data management plan. In the afternoon, there was a breakout session where delegates separated into different groups on themes such as social protection and modelling so that ideas and questions could be exchanged in a more informal setting.

We would like to thank again our amazing hosts, BNMT Nepal, for organising such a dynamic and engaging 2 days of discussions that included a fantastic evening of entertainment at the end of the first day. All participants dressed up in traditional Nepali clothing and were able to get a taste of the culinary delights that Nepal has to offer.