Dr. Joseph Akpaloo, Chief Executive of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), has urged health professionals, who had undertaken research studies to use their findings to transform and improve patient care.

He said their ability to combine studies with the knowledge acquired through research should help enrich the lives of the people they served and at the same time, promote the research agenda of the hospital.

The Akpaloo was speaking at the graduation ceremony held for the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 batches of the Diploma in Project Design and Management (DPDM) programme, at the hospital in Kumasi.

The DPDM programme was started in 2004 and it is a collaboration between the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), KATH and the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

It is designed to strengthen the institutional research capacity of the hospital - enhance its research profile, one of its core mandate as a teaching hospital.

The programme has since its inception, enrolled about 226 candidates out of which 96 from various health disciplines had successfully gone through it.

The course has now been opened to health professionals in other facilities, eager to join in the promotion of quality health care across the nation.

Dr. Akpaloo underlined the commitment of the management towards creating and nurturing enduring research culture at the facility.

It was ready, he said to support all research activities that sought to promote clinical care and influence policy.

He commended the LSTM for the continued support and noting that the programme had tremendously improved the hospital’s research profile and pool of appointed consultants.

Dr. Akpaloo encouraged heads of directorate at the hospital to review the findings from the DPDM candidates to guide them towards the implementation of the relevant findings.

Professor Imelda Bates, Director of Studies, LSTM, spoke of the need to grow and expand the programme to help more health professionals acquire research skills that would help them to carry on with their work based on empirical evidence.