Interview
September 2008
Dr. Ruth Owusu, Research Physician and Clinical Research Fellow, Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana
Dr. Owusu is currently involved in the design and conduct of malaria drug and vaccine trials. She graduated with an MBChB from the University of Ghana Medical School in 1999 and worked as an intern and then as a medical officer at various departments of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. In 2003-2004, she obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health at the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana. Dr. Owusu is a member of the Kintampo Health Research Centre Institutional Ethics Committee, the Ghana Medical Association, and the Ghana Bioethics Initiative.
Her passion is to influence health policy through research, especially child health policy, and to see a marked decline in morbidity and mortality of preventable childhood diseases.
MVI interviewed Dr. Owusu about some of the challenges related to her work.
“The biggest challenge I face is getting mothers in rural communities to understand what malaria really is—the fact that malaria is preventable.”
MVI: Why did you choose this area of work?
Dr. Owusu: I chose this area of work because I’m concerned about the health of children. A lot of illnesses that children die from are preventable, and there’s a lot that we can do to prevent them from dying.
MVI: What’s the biggest challenge that you face in your job on a day-to-day basis?
Dr. Owusu: The biggest challenge I face is getting mothers in rural communities to understand what malaria really is—the fact that malaria is preventable.
MVI: How do you overcome this challenge?
Dr. Owusu: I think it’s a matter of continuously trying to explain it to them. When other mothers understand what you are saying, they are very good at teaching others. It’s a matter of continuously educating people.
MVI: What major lessons have you learned in your three years in this field?
Dr. Owusu: The major lesson I’ve learned is that for research results to influence policy and practice, we need to engage policymakers early. Even before we start research, we need to find out from them what their interests are. What are the things they think are important? What do they want us to do? When they are interested in what we are doing, they are willing to be influenced in deciding whether it’s important to change policies or to introduce new policies based on the research results we have.
MVI: How would you describe your role as a scientist advocate?
Dr. Owusu: I see my role as helping to bridge the gap between research and policy. There’s a big gap now. Sometimes research is done and the results are very necessary to change policies or to introduce new policies but sometimes this research never gets to see the light of day. I think it’s important to be able to bridge this gap. Whatever research results we find should be able to help shape policy and practice.
MVI: What do you think is the greatest challenge facing malaria vaccine research and development?
Dr. Owusu: I think the greatest challenge is that there have been years of research on malaria vaccines but a lot of the vaccines have not really worked, so people still think it’s an abstract concept—a vaccine that would prevent malaria. And, of course, there are lots of competing interests. It’s difficult to get money to fund the research itself and to (eventually) deploy the vaccine. If people were able to conceptualize that very soon we will get a malaria vaccine that will work, I think they would be more willing to commit funds to ensure that it would be available to the people who need vaccines.
