October 2008, ILEP Meeting, London14.11.09 - 08:47
     

Introducing the project idea to the global community of leprosy missions

The Foundation for Medical Research study which had been presented in Hyderabad leading into the commitment to a new study initiative of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development was conducted on behalf of the Swiss leprosy mission “Emmaus”. Therefore a representative of the mission was part of the September meeting which became a kick-off for first steps towards a concrete study project.

Thanks to this the CEO of Emmaus suggested to use the opportunity of the annual ILEP Cooperation Meeting, taking place soon after in London, for discussing the preliminary plans and identifying potential areas for collaboration. While it was valuable to get some feedback from an audience with such a rich and diverse experience in the anti-leprosy field, it was too early to come up with concrete ideas for specific projects. However, it became clear that it seems to be a right notion: “There is a widespread consensus that better knowledge about successful anti-leprosy practices is needed, but very different ideas exist about the kind of knowledge to strive for.”

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→ Who owns this website?

This website is maintained by the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. Inspired by debates at the 2008 Leprosy Congress a new theme was started: promote surveys which help improve the efficacy of hands-on leprosy control worldwide.

As there are trendier topics than a leprosy-free world it is crucial to link up existing or emerging efforts. The Foundation is prepared to play this facilitation role and will also be able to add some missing elements.

In this spirit this website is owned by everybody who wants to contribute to innovative leprosy control studies.

Connecting leprosy control surveys in a global perspective

→ How can you contribute?

Just let others in the field know about your survey projects and ideas – by using the comment function or by emailing content to be included. Or contact us to point at missing pieces in the jigsaw of know-how on fighting leprosy successfully.

Improvements start with information

→ What is a successful study?

First and foremost this is an open question which this website wants to help be discussed. However, in broad terms it seems to be clear that creating new insights and empirical knowledge is a success if it leads to an earlier detection (and treatment) of leprosy cases. Studies merely with a medical / epidemiological focus might be blind to opportunities of influencing health system or patient related parameters, being revealed by approaches which are based on social sciences, too.

focus on earlier case detection