RESEARCH
The AHOMKA study is the first of its kind with a focus on capacity building in mobile health research and mobile technology development for hypertension monitoring and management, with clinical validation in both urban and rural regions of Ghana. AHOMKA is expected to have a significant and sustained impact on reducing the prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension in Ghana. In the long-term, mHealth interventions for hypertension management will reduce morbidity and mortality rates associated with hypertension.
In this multi-disciplinary project, we will develop the AHOMKA mobile platform, an evidence-based, multi-faceted mobile health intervention with the overall goal to reduce the prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension in Ghana. AHOMKA is an adaptation of the Empower HealthTM mobile platform developed by Medtronic as a new task-sharing model of care for chronic diseases, consisting of a mobile application for patient data tracking, provider-to-patient communication, and community-based screening
Our Research Team Will Pursue The Following Aims
LOCATION
Site 1: National Cardiothoracic Center – Out Patient Department (NCTC-Accra) at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in the Greater Accra Region
​
Site 2 is the Cardiothoracic Center – Out Patient Department (CTC-Ho) at Ho Teaching Hospital in the Volta Region
FUNDING
The AHOMKA study is funded by the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R21EB033166) and the Fogarty International Center’s Mobile Health: Technology Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries program (R21/R33).
_.jpg)
To culturally adapt an interactive mHealth platform to track blood pressure data using a user-centered, iterative design process.
To develop predictive risk models for cardiovascular disease.
To conduct human subject studies to assess the feasibility of the AHOMKA mobile platform for hypertension management.
To establish a center of excellence for mHealth interventions for hypertension care.
To design wearable health devices for continuous ambulatory monitoring of human vital signs.