In 1987 the international medical and humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors without Borders) created its own research center, called Epicentre, to help address critical health research questions that arise during humanitarian emergencies. In this week's PLoS Medicine, Vincent Brown from Epicentre and colleagues look back over twenty years of research conducted by MSF and Epicentre and discuss how this research helped to improve field operations.
The authors discuss their research on:
"Finding pragmatic and efficacious answers to public health questions generated by the field has led Epicentre research activities over the last 20 years," say Dr Brown and colleagues. "The ultimate goal remains to address questions aimed at significantly improve the health status of affected populations."
Citation: Brown V, Guerin PJ, Legros D, Paquet C, Pécoul B, et al. (2008) Research in complexhumanitarian emergencies: The Médecins Sans Frontières/Epicentre experience. PLoS Med 5(4): e89.
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CONTACT:
Vincent Brown
Epicentre
Paris
France
+33 1 40 21 28 50
vbrown@epicentre.msf.org
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