Ongoing Research Support:

R01 HL152188                                                                                               Sarfo (Multiple PI)                                                                  05/01/2020 – 04/30/2025

NIH-NHLBI?

Phone-based Intervention under Nurse Guidance after Stroke (PINGS) II is testing a nurse-led, mobile health guided intervention to control blood pressure over a 12 month period among 500 recent stroke survivors in 10 Ghanaian hospitals. We will assess clinical effectiveness and implementation outcomes of the PINGS intervention.

R21 NS103752-01                                        Sarfo (Multiple PI)                             08/01/2017 – 07/31/2021

NIH-NINDS

Stroke Minimization through Additive anti-Atherosclerotic agents in Routine Treatment (SMAART trial) aims to assess in a phase 2 pilot/pragmatic RCT, whether a polypill containing fixed doses of 3 antihypertensives, a statin and antiplatelet therapy taken once daily orally would result in carotid intimal thickness regression-a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis, improved adherence and tolerability compared with ‘usual care’ group on separate, individual secondary preventive medications among Ghanaian stroke survivors in a single center study. A 12-month follow up is planned to allow sufficient time to assess sustainability of adherence to the polypill, overcome the time-lag effect required for translation of the CVD prevention benefits of SBP and LDL-C control and initiate the collection of ‘hard cardiovascular outcome measures’ such as recurrent strokes and vascular events to inform the design of a larger future phase 3 SMAART trial to assess these clinical outcomes in a multi-center study. Findings from the SMAART study will undoubtedly contribute meaningful data from the African perspective towards the formulation of guidelines for global adoption of polypills into routine care for secondary CVD risk prevention by international bodies such as the World Health Organization. In the long-term, findings from SMAART could serve as a scalable strategy for managing CVD risk among stroke survivors in SSA, and even other LMICs.

U01 HL157004                                                                                               Sarfo (PI)                                                                    05/07/2021 – 06/30/2026

NIH-NHLBI?

Ghana Sickle Pan-African Research Consortium Collaborative Sites Study (GHANA-SPARCO): GHANA-SPARCO seeks to establish a prospective cohort of 6,000 individuals living with SCD across the lifespan with a dual purpose of understanding the determinants of the protean manifestations of acute and chronic complications of SCD in a resource-limited setting while conducting implementation research to address, surmount & integrate the best resource-based standards of clinical care for SCD with a vision towards establishing hubs of excellence for research and care for SCD in Ghana.