Professor Petrucka Brings Preventative Care to Those Most in Need
Professor Dr. Pammla Petrucka has received funding to explore ways to bring preventative medical care to those in developing countries.
The news is often filled with stories from developing countries about the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B, but little is reported about non-communicable conditions in these countries, like high blood pressure and diabetes. In the developed world, health care providers work with patients on a regular basis on preventative medicine and health promotion. College of Nursing’s Dr. Pammla Petrucka, in partnership with co-investigators Dr. Vivian Wonanji (Health Department, Arusha Region Tanzania) and Emmanuel Makangoro (Green Hope Organisation) are looking to bring prevention and promotion to the Arusha Region of Tanzania.
In a previous project (Mama Kwanza,) Dr. Petrucka created health kiosks throughout the Arusha region and offered outreach health services for non-communicable diseases including blood pressure monitoring for over 5,000 individuals. To formalize the delivery of this important preventative care and to continue to build on the success of Mama Kwanza, Dr. Petrucka continued to advocate for a more intentional and sustainable model for health monitoring and interventions. The result? The current project Dr. Petrucka is working on called Enhancing Mobile Capacity for Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring and Health Literacy.
“Given the past response and receptiveness to the temporary kiosks formed through Mama Kwanza, when Dr. Wonanji approached me with this idea, I was very excited to work on a mobile clinic model,” said Dr. Petrucka. “Moving to a mobile clinical site is an innovative approach to seeking, strategizing, studying and sharing experiences in the critical areas of risk reduction and management of non-communicable diseases, which are relevant and prevalent on national and global health agendas.”
While infectious diseases have traditionally been the leading cause of disease in low and middle-income countries, the world has become increasingly aware about the impact non-transmissible diseases also have on populations. Over the last few decades, the frequency of non-transmissible diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, have rapidly increased in Sub-Saharan nations, Tanzania included. This has now become known as the “Double Burden”.
“If people don’t know the possible complications of having high blood pressure, they don’t understand the importance of monitoring it,” said Dr. Petrucka. “Our goal of this project is to bring care to those who are most in need and educate them about the risks of a number of conditions that they may not even know exist. The partnership between myself, Dr. Vivian Wonanji and Green Hope will look at providing access to universal health coverage and accessibility to quality essential services (prevention/promotion).”
This project has received funding from the University of Saskatchewan Global Community Service Fund and is expected to take two years to complete.