A documentary about SciLifeLab research finalist at the WHO “Health for All” film festival

An international collaboration between Swedish and Ugandan researchers, from SciLifeLab, Karolinska Institutet, KTH and MSF’s Epicentre, has led to a Point-of-care (POC) Meningitis clinical trial in Southwestern Uganda. The trial is investigating novel methods to improve and strengthen the differential diagnostics of suspected childhood CNS infections in countries with fragile health-care systems.

To spread awareness about the diagnostics gap in low-income settings and to shed light on a pediatric research collaboration between Sweden and Uganda, the researchers have documented the clinical trial with a short film that has now been selected among 1200 submissions, to the WHO’s “Health for All” film festival, in the “Health Equity” category.

“Health equity is at the heart of the “PI-POC clinical trial” which uses the state-of-the-art technical platforms at SciLifeLab to generate knowledge about childhood CNS infections and, at the same time, works closely with the researchers and medical team in Uganda, to improve the quality of care for children in rural settings”, says first author and field coordinator of the trial, Giulia Gaudenzi (SciLifeLab/KTH).

During the online award ceremony on May 13, the film festival jury will nominate a winner in each category for a Grand Prix. In addition, there will be three special prizes: a film made by students, a health educational film for the youth and a health equity film. All winners will receive a “Health for All Film Festival trophy” and a grant encouraging them to produce more films about health.

“This film reminds us of the challenges that we still face with childhood diseases in low resource settings and how important it is to collaborate internationally to create research capacity building. The whole team is proud to have been highlighted by the WHO, in particular our colleagues in Southwestern Uganda, who doesn’t have the same possibilities as us to present their work at scientific conferences and events”, concludes Giulia.

Watch all of the selected contributions here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9S6xGsoqIBUeWze_YYfz0Y04S_lKVvQV

Watch the live event!

The project has also been funded by VR, ERC and SLS grants.