Research and Quality Improvement
African Research Collaboration on Sepsis (ARCS)
The ARCS is a Global Health Research Group awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). Running from 2018 to 2021, ARCS operates within three African countries, Malawi, Gabon, and Uganda. ARCS brings together African and UK expertise across the applied health spectrum to tackle sepsis, learning from the UK’s experience in reducing sepsis mortality.
Creating sustainable partnerships between research and clinical organizations, Ministries of Health, non-government organizations, and commercial sectors, ARCS is establishing a network across the three counties and focuses on the following four objectives:
To deliver high quality sepsis research training
To establish commonly agreed sepsis care quality indicators for Africa which could form the bedrock of monitoring and evaluation programs
To pilot test innovative sepsis care interventions
To test the feasibility of novel clinical trial platforms for answering key sepsis questions for Africa.
ARCS is led by LSTM Principal Investigators, Dr Shevin Jacob and Dr Jamie Rylance. Implementing partners include the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW), the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Walimu, and Center of Medical Research Lambaréné (CERMEL), and other key NGOs (the Global Sepsis Alliance and Worldwide Radiology).