Featured Issue: Rwanda Medical Journal Vol.70 No.3

Today we are featuring issue 3 of vol.70 of the Rwanda Medical Journal. This issue includes "Inventory of studies on health systems strenghthening in Rwanda and in Africa" by Munyanshongore & Jino. The article is a study on health systems in Africa with a focus on Rwanda. The article notes that not many studies on health systems have been conducted, but this study in particular aims to create an inventory of existing studies on health systems so the studies and access how these studies could be used in future research. Data on Rwanda was collected from several health institutions and organizations. The researchers then obtained data via the Internet on twenty randomly selected countries in the rest of Africa. Functions of health systems were then identified. Some of the functions included were Leadership and Governance for Health, Health Financing, Health Information System and Health Technologies. The results indicated that there are gaps in Health Systems Strengthening, and further documentation in all categories is required, especially in the Health Information System and Health Technologies.

This issue also includes "Risk factors and prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in adult diabetic patients consulting at Kigali university teaching hospital" by Giraneza & Semanyenzi. This article looks at a study conducted at Kigali University Teaching Hospital between January and June 2012 in which 226 adults with diabetes mellitus were examined for diabetic retinopathy. The results indicated that diabetic retinopathy was found in 31% of cases. The results also indicated that the length of time the patient has had diabetes, uncontrolled blood pressure and high blood pressure were among significant independent risk factors.

You can find these articles and other articles from this issue here. The abstracts are also available in French.