Update on ASSENT project in Malawi

[Helen Mangochi]

Hope you are all and had wonderful time in Oxford during the summer school. I would like to share with you the progress of our interesting ASSENT project which is close to the end. Following completion of data analysis, we discussed the findings. We managed to draft a manuscript and submitted it to BMC medical ethics journal. Just received their feedback this week and we may soon start addressing the journals comments and resubmit. for a possible publication.

Moving on,we are planning to have feedback meetings with our participants, clinical teams and local ethics committee representatives. We are also planning to work with Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research governance unit to develop some guidelines on ASSENT which can be used to inform future researchers in pediatric research in low income settings.

We shared some of our preliminary findings with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Research governance office who showed interest .Once our findings are published, they are happy to  include them in their guidance as well. Thank you all for your input and support during all the stages of this wonderful project and will keep updating you on any developments and impact this may have.

Best wishes,  Helen Mangochi 

[Dina Rippon]

Dear Helen, Thanks so much for this update. It's great to hear how things are going, and congratulations on already submitting a draft manuscript to the BMC medical ethics journal. Do let us know more about your findings, and it would be great to hear how your feedback meetings went. What did your participants think of the findings? Thanks again! Dina