Mansard Insurance funds health research, training for medical experts

In keeping with its commitment to improving the overall well-being of her immediate customer base and larger society, Mansard Insurance plc has made a commitment to the annual funding of Postgraduate Training Fellowships in general urology at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan center.

Four resident doctors of UCH were awarded the MANSARD-PIUTA 2013 Travel Fellowships, to attend the Pan African Urological Surgeons’ Association (PAUSA) conference November 2013 in Accra, Ghana. One of the travel awardees, Ijeoma Chibuzo won the ‘Best paper award’ for her paper, “The UCH Bladder Manikin’’. This is an innovative home-grown model designed by urologists at the UCH to train doctors on how to drain the bladder in an emergency.

Ten other lecturers/consultants, resident doctors and a PhD student were awarded the 2013 MANSARD-PIUTA Fellowship Research Grants for various studies in Epidemiological/Translational, basic and clinical science research projects.

According to Oluwabunmi Olapade-Olaopa, director, PIUTA Ibadan Centre, and President of the Pan African Urological Surgeons’ Association (PAUSA), ‘…both the travel and research grants being funded by Mansard Insurance plc will increase the understanding of diseases in our community through knowledge generation, improve the quality of training of resident doctors, undergraduate and postgraduate students and other health professionals, and will educate the wider scientific community through the resultant presentations and publications in national and international scientific fora.’ Additionally, the studies will result in access for nearly 1,000 study participants to the high quality investigations and treatment modalities to be provided.

He also stated that the funds will assist PIUTA in achieving its objectives of improving the standard of urologic care in sub-Saharan Africa by improving the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the awardees, the extended beneficiaries and ultimately the entire healthcare system through the improved treatment protocols to be developed.

In his comments, Mansard’s Chief Client Officer, Tosin Runsewe said “Mansard is glad to help facilitate such high level exposure and training of middle/top-tier health care specialists through researches in multiple medical and science disciplines’’. Runsewe assured that Mansard would continue to fund training fellowships at the PIUTA Ibadan center and other similar notable institutions.