Gill Nominated for BMJ ‘Research Paper of the Year’.

Dr. Christopher Gill, a researcher with the Center for Global Health & Development and associate professor of international health at BUSPH, has received a nomination for Research Paper of the Year by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group.

Chris GillGill was recognized for his research on neonatal mortality in Lufwanyama, Zambia. “Researchers want our work to matter,” Gill said. “Our worst nightmare is that the final product of our work will be a paper that no one reads.”

In addition to Gill, contributors to the paper were: William MacLeod, assistant professor of international health; Anna Knapp, senior program manager at the Center for Global Health and Development; Matthew Fox, assistant professor of international health; Lora Sabin, associate professor of international health; Philip Seidenberg, clinical assistant professor of international health; Jonathon Simon, chair and professor of international health; and Davidson Hamer, professor of international health.

The Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Project set out to determine whether training traditional birth attendants to manage several common medical complications at birth, including asphyxia and sepsis, reduced neonatal mortality in rural settings that lack resident doctors and hospitals.

A group of traditional attendants learned common neonatal resuscitation techniques, including drying and wrapping a newborn with towels, clearing the airways, and if necessary, gently rubbing the feet and back to stimulate breathing or applying a facemask to deliver air to the struggling newborn. The training of the attendants led to a significant reduction in neonatal mortality in Lufwanyama—results that Gill hopes will lead the interventions to be duplicated in similar rural settings across the developing world.

Winners will be announced at the BMJ Improving Health Awards ceremony on May 23 in London. More than 500 doctors, in addition to researchers, policy-makers and corporate sponsors, are expected to gather to honor the nominees’ contributions to improving patient outcomes and medical practices in the UK and internationally.