Introduction

The 37 Military hospital is part of a multicenter collaborative research project on prostate cancer in Africa known as the Men of African descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) Network. This study involves researchers from eleven institutions in the US and Africa with an aim to look at genetic susceptibility and population genomics of prostate cancer in men of African descent. Specifically, the study hopes to provide new information about the genetic etiology of prostate cancer and evaluate how population differences and history of African and African American populations affects the underlying reasons for high rates of prostate cancer in African Americans.
 

The 37 Military Hospital is a 500-bed facility located in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The primary objective of the facility is to provide quality healthcare to service personnel and their families, civilian employees of the Ministry of Defence and their families and ex-service personnel as well as the general public. Additionally, the hospital serves as the National Disaster and Emergency Response health facility.

The hospital was originally established and commissioned on 4th July 1941 to provide treatment for troops injured in the Second World War. It gained the name 37 because it was the 37th military hospital to be built in the British Empire and was changed to 37 Military Hospital of the Gold Coast in 1956.
 

37 Military Hospital is a Teaching Hospital and is made up of several departments Surgical, Medical, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology, Dental,  Pathology, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy and Radiology.  The Surgical Division has departments including Urology, General Surgery, Orthopedics and Trauma, Plastic Surgery and Neurosurgery. It also has training institutions such as the Nursing and Midwifery Training School (NMTC), School of Anesthesia, Emergency Medical Technicians School and a Post Graduate Medical College. For the prospective study, the 37 Military Hospital site will enrol 400 incident cases and 400 healthy controls over a four-year period of study.