{"id":3212,"date":"2025-03-05T05:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T05:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-champs-new.pantheonsite.io\/?page_id=3212"},"modified":"2025-11-12T08:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:55:27","slug":"champs-methodology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/champshealth.org\/champs-methodology\/","title":{"rendered":"CHAMPS Methodology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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CHAMPS Methodology<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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How CHAMPS Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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CHAMPS has investigated deaths in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. In each country, CHAMPS investigators collaborate with community and public health leaders to establish study sites that encompass approximately 200,000 people. Community engagement is an important first and ongoing activity in each site to ensure that CHAMPS\u2019 work is in harmony with local practices following deaths and that community members understand CHAMPS\u2019 purpose and methods. Next, CHAMPS teams set up systems (i.e., mortality surveillance) to quickly identify stillbirths and deaths in children <5 years of age. When a death is identified, and if parents provide consent, CHAMPS teams collect a set of specimens from the deceased through a procedure called minimally invasive tissue sampling, or MITS. The samples undergo extensive testing and examination in local laboratories and are sometimes sent to reference laboratories for further evaluation. Study teams extract data from clinical records when available and talk to the family about the child\u2019s illness using a standard approach known as verbal autopsy. All information and test results are reviewed by a panel of local clinical experts, who assign causes for each death, a process known as Determination of Cause of Death (DeCoDe). Sites also set up systems to track pregnancy care and outcomes (i.e., pregnancy surveillance) and the number of births and deaths in communities (i.e., demographic surveillance) to provide context for the stillbirths and child deaths enrolled in CHAMPS.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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OUR METHODS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CHAMPS Systems<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Community Engagement<\/h3>\n\n

CHAMPS applies a continuous, community-centered approach that involves families, local leaders, and broader communities in all stages of CHAMPS. Engagement includes transparent communication about procedures, timely feedback of findings to families and communities, and active involvement in interpreting data and shaping local health responses when applicable. This ongoing process helps build trust, ensure ethical practices, and align CHAMPS activities with local values and needs. Engagement is not a one-time event, it is sustained throughout the lifecycle of CHAMPS work in each site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n