A standardized clinical database for research in Chagas disease: The NHEPACHA network

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024 Aug 15;18(8):e0012364. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012364. eCollection 2024 Aug.

Abstract

The NHEPACHA Iberoamerican Network, founded on the initiative of a group of researchers from Latin American countries and Spain, aims to establish a research framework for Chagas disease that encompasses diagnosis and treatment. For this purpose, the network has created a questionnaire to gather relevant data on epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of the disease. This questionnaire was developed based on a consensus of expert members of the network, with the intention of collecting high-quality standardized data, which can be used interchangeably by the different research centers that make up the NHEPACHA network. Furthermore, the network intends to offer a clinical protocol that can be embraced by other researchers, facilitating comparability among published studies, as well as the development of therapeutic response and progression markers.

MeSH terms

  • Biomedical Research / standards
  • Chagas Disease* / drug therapy
  • Chagas Disease* / epidemiology
  • Databases, Factual
  • Humans
  • Latin America / epidemiology
  • Spain / epidemiology
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The NHEPACHA network is supported by Drugs for Neglected diseases initative (DNDi) and Fundación Mundo Sano. ISGlobal researchers (ILG, JCGF, NMP, JG, and JAP) were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (CEX2018-000806-S), the Generalitat de Catalunya (CERCA program) and La Caixa Foundation (LCF/BQ/DI21/11860037 to JCGF). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.