Dr. Obonyo Nchafatso, MBChB

Obonyo attained his Medical Degree in 2009 from the University of Nairobi, before proceeding to Kijabe Mission Hospital for his internship programme in 2010. In 2011, Obonyo, joined the KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi as a Clinical Research and Training Fellow supervised by Professor Kathryn Maitland and Dr. Bernadette Brent. His main focus was on the study of heart function in severely malnourished children (CAPMAL study). In 2013 he was awarded the awarded the prestigious Global Health Research Fellowship at Imperial College London under the Wellcome Trust’s Institutional Strategic Support Fund for his work on management of shock in children (MAPS study). In 2014, he was a Research Medical Officer at KEMRI – Wellcome Trust in the study evaluating the efficacy of fluid resuscitation guidelines in severely malnourished children (AFRIM study). Since mid-2015, Obonyo has been based at the Critical Care Research Group in Brisbane, Australia as an Echocardiography Research Fellow which entails using high frequency sound waves (ultrasound) to scan the heart. His PhD, supervised by Professor Kathryn Maitland and Professor John Fraser, focusses on evaluating dysfunction of the heart during infection and the response to drip-fluid treatment.

Obonyo is interested in heart research because children with healthy hearts make the best footballers – they endure physical exercise and play with a ‘good heart’ (no yellow/red cards)! He has great interest in soccer.

Paul Ouma

Paul received training in Geomatic engineering and geospatial information systems from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. He joined the KWTRP as an intern in 2015, in the spatial health metrics group with his project focusing on mapping malaria risk and defining access to health facilities in west Africa. He later joined the group as a research assistant, under the information for malaria project, where he worked on mapping access to health facilities, mapping malaria risk in Africa and quantifying interventions for malaria. His masters project was on developing spatial models of health facility utilization, as a function of many socio demographic characteristics. He is currently a PhD student under the IDeAL program, where his work focuses on understanding the variation in spatial access to emergency hospitals for acute conditions such as emergency obstetrics, severe newborn and childhood illnesses in Kenya. His work can be useful in providing important baseline information on where expansion for hospital and pre hospital care should be focused, at both national and sub-national level. In addition, Paul is an active member of the Geospatial Information management society of Kenya.

Publications

1. Coverage of routine reporting on malaria parasitological testing in Kenya, 2015–2016. Maina JK, Macharia PM, Ouma PO, Snow RW, Okiro EA (2017). Global health action. 10:1413266
2. Estimating the need for inpatient neonatal services: an iterative approach employing evidence and expert consensus to guide local policy in Kenya. Murphy GA, Waters D, Ouma PO, Gathara D, Shepperd S, Snow RW, English M (2017). BMJ global health. 2: e000472
3.  Univariate and multivariate spatial models of health facility utilization for childhood fevers in an area on the coast of Kenya. Ouma PO, Agutu NO, Snow RW, Noor AM (2017). International Journal of Health Geographics. 16: 34
4. Spatial accessibility to basic public health services in South Sudan. Macharia PM, Ouma PO, Gogo EG, Snow RW , Noor AM (2017). Geospatial Health, 12: 510
5.  The Nairobi Newborn Study: protocol for an observational study to estimate the gaps in provision and quality of inpatient newborn care in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Murphy GAV, Gathara D, Aluvaala J, Mwachiro J, Abuya N, Ouma PO, Snow RW, English M (2016). BMJ open. 6: e012448
6. Access to emergency hospital care provided by the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015: a geocoded inventory and spatial analysis. Ouma PO, Maina JK, Thuranira PN, Macharia PM, Alegana VA, English M, Okiro EA, Snow RW (2018). Lancet Global Health. 6. e342–e350.