Multimorbidity Research in Sub-Saharan Africa: Programme

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Wednesday 22^ndJune 2022

Time	Title	Speaker
16.00-17.00	Registration and mingling
17.00-17.15	Meeting opening	Jonathan Chiwanda, Malawi MoH
17.00-18.30	Keynote talk Provisional title: What promise does a focus on ‘multimorbidity’ hold for the equitable development of African systems of care and for meeting people’s needs?	Speaker: Mosa Moshabela, UKZN Chairs: Felix Limbani and Jamie Rylance, MLW
18.30-19.00	Drinks reception
19.00-	Welcome Dinner

Thursday 23^rd June 2022

Time	Title	Speaker
08.30-08.45	Introductions, scene setting	Organisers
08.45-10.00	Turbo talks from participants/groups (3-5 mins, 1 slide each)	All groups
10.00-10.30	Refreshments
10.30-12.00	Theme 1: Illness and disease Ignition talk: Is ‘multimorbidity’ proving to be a useful conceptual lens for expanding understandings of illness and disease in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa? Discussion themes: To what extent does ‘multimorbidity’ disrupt single disease thinking? Can MM offer a more holistic window not just into disease but the process of illness, the ‘whole person’ and their broader social context? Recognising that MM affects younger age groups in SSn Africa, how does MM relate to discussions around wellbeing, flourishing, healthy ageing and the ‘good life’? What kinds of cross, trans or discipline-agnostic approaches are needed in this context?	Speaker: Edith Chikumbu, MEIRU Chair:Alan Silman, Oxford
12.00-13.30	Lunch
13.30-15.00	Theme 2: Population-level health data Ignition talk: What promise does a ‘multimorbidity’ lens have for enhancing knowledge of population-level disease patterns, trends, burden etc.? Discussion themes: What is currently known/knowable via research and surveillance systems, and what is not? What existing infrastructure/cohorts/trials could be used/adapted to study multimorbidity? What needs to be made visible at patient level (e.g., in relation to Theme 1)? How to join up health research and care systems to benefit health services and avoid parallel (data economies? How can a MM lens help improve ‘global’ metrics, e.g., global burden of disease? Can there in fact be ‘global’ metrics if MM is taken seriously?	Speakers: Tsaone Tamuhla and Nicki Tiffin, UCT Chair: Rashida Ferrand, THRU-ZIM, LSHTM
15.00-15.30	Lunch
15.30-17.00	Theme 3: Causality and prevention Ignition talk: In what ways is ‘multimorbidity’ expanding understandings of the mapping of disease onto ‘risks’ and prevention efforts? Discussion themes: What are emerging patterns of health ‘risks’ in and across different countries? Is MM a revealing lens for understanding their effects on illness, disease, wellbeing, healthy ageing, etc.? In what ways might a MM lens nuance often simplistic linear accounts linking risks, to disease, to further disease, to death? Can MM help galvanise broader and more cross-sectoral prevention efforts?	Speakers: Andre-Paul Kengne and Nasheeta Peer, SA MRC Chair: Emily Mendenhall, Georgetown

Friday 24^th June 2022

Time	Title	Speaker
08.30-10.00	Theme 4: Health systems and care models Ignition talk: In what ways could a ‘multimorbidity’ lens allow us to design better systems of healthcare delivery? Possible discussion themes: What problems does the organisation of systems around single diseases present for patient care in different settings? Might a multimorbidity lens enable more ‘patient centred’ care? And make progress towards Universal Health Coverage? To what extent is transformation needed, and to what extent system repair? What implications does MM have for the way we train and deploy health workers?	Speaker: Edna Bosire Chair: Adamson Muula, KUHeS
10.00-10.30	Refreshments
10.30-12	Cross-cutting themes What cross-cutting themes have emerged across these four domains? Aim: To map emerging themes that describe the types of resource, training, support, and information structures that are needed to respond to multimorbidity	All
12.00-13.00	Lunch
13.00-17.00 (with refreshments)	Working groups Drawing on the sessions over the last two days, what papers might we want to collaboratively write? Aim: To have paper titles, author groups and writing plans, and broader structure for collective outputs	All
17.00-	Close