ALIMA's Dr. Richard Kojan Receives Game-Changing Innovator REACH Award for Revolutionizing Ebola Treatment and Care
Dr. Richard Kojan was announced winner of the Game Changing Innovator Award during the Recognizing Excellence Around Champions of Health (REACH) Awards ceremony, which took place on November 19th, 2019 during the Reaching the Last Mile (RLM) Forum. With this prestigious award, Dr. Kojan is being recognized for creating the portable bio-secure emergency care unit called the CUBE which allows for close monitoring of Ebola patients by medical staff in remote, low-resource areas.
Dr. Kojan is a Congolese physician who has dedicated his career to caring for the most vulnerable populations and currently serves as President of The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA). Dr. Kojan’s Ebola treatment efforts with ALIMA were recently featured in The Wall Street Journal.
The creation of the CUBE was spurred by Dr. Kojan’s observations while working in remote Guinea for ALIMA’s Ebola response. After noticing the patient mortality rate was 55%, compared to 18% for patients treated in resourced hospitals, Dr. Kojan set out to identify the cause. He found that European hospitals treated Ebola patients in isolation rooms which allowed doctors to continuously monitor patients in a way that was not possible in Guinea. There, staff had to wear multiple layers of protective clothing which could only be worn for 30 minutes maximum due to the risk of overheating, limiting their patient interactions to three times per day.
Together with French firm Securotec, Dr. Kojan developed a portable, Biosafety Level 4 (the highest possible rating) emergency care unit that allows physicians to continuously observe and treat patients, and also ensures affordable and rapid deployment in low-resource settings. ALIMA debuted the CUBE at the onset of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With 26 CUBE units now in use in the response, they have lowered the patient mortality rate to below 35%, and continue to see success.
The CUBE changes the way medical staff interact with patients and the clear plastic walls create an atmosphere of transparency, allowing patients and their loved ones to interact safely. This can help to reduce the distrust and fear that may hinder people from seeking treatment. The CUBE has significantly improved the emergency response to outbreaks such as Ebola and other diseases in remote areas.
RELATED INVESTMENTS
Three active CUBE units at the ALIMA treatment center in Beni, Congo. JOHN WESSELS/ALIMA
Dr. Kojan performing a sonogram on a 53-year-old Ebola patient this summer at a treatment center in Beni, Congo. WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG/ALIMA
