Participants and Feedback

MSF Scientific Day 2014 – snapshot summary

Participants and feedback

On May 23rd, the 292 attendees of the 2014 MSF Scientific Day at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, UK (40% MSF staff; 60% academic/other NGO/health worker/student/journalist) were joined by over 2200 online viewers in 102 countries:

The online stream was highly appreciated by viewers (“2000+ online.. #MSFsci determined not to be an echo chamber”; “If you are not watching livestream of #MSF Sci, do so! Fascinating reports on field medical action”) and the presenters themselves (@agsprecher“Recurring #MSFsci closing acknowledgement to colleagues & coauthors watching online. Still waiting for “Hi mom!””). MSF field sites held group viewings (@AnnMarieWilcock@msf staff in Islamabad, #Pakistan watching the live stream of MSF Scientific Day in London #MSFsci pic.twitter.com/Q0dfpV5nyd) and the Twitter discussion included academics, MSF staff, and policymakers (@APPGGlobHealth Great livestream of #MSF Scientific Day live now. Reports on field medical action & research4policy up next). The gender balance of speakers drew praise (@marianlturner “Massive shout out for 50:50 male:female speakers”) but the ethnic profile did not (@Sharifa3aziz “I hope that next year #MSFsci will have more variety of presenter from Africa, Asia and the Middle East presenting their research”).

Key themes

Vickie Hawkins, Executive Director of MSF UK, started the day by dedicating it to the three MSF colleagues killed in Central African Republic (CAR) in April. In response to the challenges faced in the conflicts in Syria, CAR and South Sudan shecalled for “new and innovative ways to reach patients stuck in the heart of crisis when our tried and tested methods have failed.” A hard-hitting Keynote by Jennifer Leaning of Harvard outlined the need for increased rigour in strategic decision-making and new models of action (@LancetGH “Jennifer Leaning suggests a 'modest proposal' to humanitarian organisations in war: a lighter touch, focusing on training local physicians”).In a panel on the challenges of research in emergency settings,Sid Wong, Medical Director of MSF-OCA, noted that MSF needs “more rigour in looking at ourselves and self-evaluating”, while Francesco Checchi (Save the Children) called for “vision and methodological courage…we don’t need a multitude of new studies, we need to identify priorities and do a few focused studies well”.

Research challenges

Syed Imran Ali’s research on water chlorination concentrations in refugee camp supplies in South Sudan received some of the best feedback. His conclusion and challenges were summed up by @LancetGH (“A safe water supply in refugee camps probably means higher than normal chlorine concentrations. But will people actually drink it?”). A late-breaker presentation on the Guinea Ebola outbreak by Armand Sprecher conveyed the scale of the challenge of the response (@safersurgery “Staggering logistics, and inevitable burden on our colleagues”), provoking debate in the auditorium on the MSF resources devoted to Ebola. In the HIV/TB session, Helen Bygrave made the case for viral load vs CD4, summed up by @LancetGH (“Where routine HIV viral load testing is available, can we drop CD4 measurement? Findings from Kenya suggest that we can”). A new lunch-time talk session on technology in humanitarian response was highly popular online, with Laurent Bonnardot looking at the successes of MSF’s telemedicine programme and Ivan Gayton at the potential of digital mapping collaborations. An interactive quiz tested the audience’s ability to detect the mode of disease transmission from mapping data – and found that many struggled.

Wrap up

Philipp du Cros, Head of the Manson Unit at MSF UK closed with a powerful summary of the key challenges and the theme of the dignity of the individual that ran through the day. He noted that Meggy Verputten’s presentation on sexual violence in Papua New Guinea had focussed on the individuals behind the numbers.A blog by Lifebox captured Phil’s summary:“The challenges are long-term,” he reminded the audience, “and it’s a double challenge in this abnormal condition; how can we be better, when we’re also in retreat? Which are the questions that are going to have the highest impact? Which are the methodologies? How can activism, the outrage at a problem, provoke us to do a study that provokes us to more activism?” The difficult questions need answering, and the imperatives bear repeating. “Jennifer reminded us that it starts with dignity, the empathy for the humanitarian act. That it’s not just about keeping people alive. It’s about helping them to live.”