Spirometry Short Course, Kumasi Ghana – May 2019

Since I was last in Ghana 8 months ago the smart new international airport has opened – congratulations Ghanaians, very nice! It was to spend time in Kumasi once again this month… a little city where nature is still pure, and warmth flows easily. I enjoyed feeling more familiar in my surroundings and with old and new friends as we strengthen relationships and grow the practice of spirometry in this community.

The Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS) supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Global Health Research Programme funded ACACIA project (Achieving Asthma Control in African Children) facilitated spirometry training from the 27 – 30th May 2019 for 19 healthcare professionals made up of the ACACIA project team together with doctors, nurses and a physiotherapist from the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah Univ. of Science & Technology (KNUST) and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

A 3-day Spirometry Certificate of Competence Short Course was followed by a 1-day Quality assurance and Over-reading workshop. The exciting thing about this course is that we now have 3 new PATS spirometry facilitators in training. Congratulations and thank you to Dr’s Rafiuk Cosmos Yakubu, Esther Tawiah and Sandra Kwarteng Owusu who have come forward as the Ghanaian spirometry team leads and who successfully co-facilitated this course. Congratulations to each of you and thank you for your commitment and support.

The last of the six ACACIA study teams have now been upskilled in the practical and theory of the measurement of spirometry in preparation for the start of their upcoming field work for the ACACIA study.

Thank you Prof Emmanuel Addo-Yobo, Cosmos, Esther, Sandra and the whole extended team for a wonderful week of spiro learning with old and new friends. I am proud of our progress in Ghana!

Facilitator